CathNews
May 24, 2010
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21526
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The Obama administration has taken the side of the Vatican in the US lawsuit that wants the Holy See to be held responsible for the sex abuse crisis in the country.
In a strongly-worded brief for the United States Supreme Court, the government asserted that the standards for an exception to the immunity that foreign governments enjoy under American law have not been met in the Oregon case, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
The brief stops short of recommending that the Supreme Court directly take up the case of Doe v. Holy See, originally filed in federal district court in Oregon in 2002.
Instead, it suggests that the Supreme Court set aside the 2009 ruling of an appeals court that allowed the case to go forward, sending it back for further consideration.
Experts say this is the first time the United States government has officially expressed an opinion about efforts to sue the Vatican in American courts, as opposed to the pope personally.
In 2005, the US State Department recommended dismissing Pope Benedict XVI from a Texas lawsuit over the sexual abuse crisis, on the basis of a separate personal guarantee of immunity enjoyed by heads of state. The judge in that case complied.
The brief, filed by the Acting Solicitor-General of the United States as well as by officials from the Attorney-General's office and the State Department, asserts that the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made a mistake in ruling that a district court in Oregon has jurisdiction over the claim that the Vatican is liable for sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests.
Essentially, the brief argues that the standards for overcoming sovereign immunity have not been met. It does not address the substantive question of whether Catholic priests are actually Vatican "employees" for purposes of American civil law, the National Catholic Reporter said.
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