Obama Backs Vatican over Abuse Case, Press TV, May 26, 2010

Obama Backs Vatican over Abuse Case

Press TV
May 26, 2010

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127783§ionid=3510203

The administration of President Barack Obama has taken sides with the Vatican over sexual child abuse lawsuits, saying the Holy See is immune from prosecution in the US.

The stance comes after the country's largest court of appeals, the nine Supreme Court Justices, asked the White House to declare its position over a case brought by a victim of alleged priestly pedophilia in the US state of Oregon.

In reaction to the case, Washington threw its weight behind the Roman Catholic Church, citing a 1976 federal law as the basis for its decision.

The US federal law shields Pope Benedict XVI from prosecution as a head of state.

Under the cited Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the US government faces certain limitations in dealing with lawsuits lodged by American citizens against foreign governments.

The federal law also shields Pope Benedict XVI from prosecution as a head of state.

This is while the Oregon case, which was filed in 2002, argues that the Vatican should be held responsible for transferring a pedophile priest to the northwestern US state, despite having been previously accused of child abuse in Chicago and Ireland.

The Vatican also faces other lawsuits in the US states of Kentucky and Wisconsin, where bishops have been accused of conspiring to conceal sex abuse charges against pedophile priests.

Both lawsuits seek to depose top Vatican officials, including the pontiff himself.

The Vatican, however, has so far refused to claim responsibility for the clerical sex abuse cases in the United States, arguing that the bishops were not technically its employees.

Over the past few months, widespread pedophilia scandals have rocked the Roman Catholic Church across the US and Europe.

Many accuse the Vatican hierarchy and the Pope, himself, of protecting child-molesting priests and creating a "wall of silence" around such issues.