Pope Put in Hot Seat, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Beyond Chron, June 1, 2010

Pope Put in Hot Seat

By Tommi Avicolli-mecca
Beyond Chron
June 1, 2010

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Pope_Put_in_Hot_Seat_8174.html

The relationship between U.S. bishops and the Vatican has come under close scrutiny in recent lawsuits aimed at proving the Holy See aided and abetted the transfer of priests accused of sex with kids from one place to another, even to parishes overseas in order to hide what they did. Pope Benedict XVI might be feeling a little like he’s facing an Inquisition. As former head of the branch of the Church that gave us the Spanish Inquisition, Benedict (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) allegedly helped sweep sex scandals under the carpet, where dirt seldom stays hidden.

Consider the case of Doe v. Holy See. A Seattle man is accusing the Vatican of conspiring with the archdiocese of Portland (where he was living at the time) to move his alleged abuser to shield him from exposure and possible prosecution. The abuse, he says, took place in the 1960s in Oregon.

In an amicus brief in the case, the U.S. Solicitor General’s office is maintaining that Pope Benedict XVI is a head of state and therefore immune from prosecution in our country. The office, which is headed by Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, feels that an appeals court was wrong in allowing the matter to proceed to the highest court in the land. The Obama Administration is defending the Pope?

In a similar case in Kentucky, three plaintiffs claim they were molested by priests as children and the Vatican helped sweep the accused priests out of sight and out of mind. Both cases rest on the belief by plaintiffs and their attorneys that bishops are officials or employees of the Vatican.

William McMurry, the attorney for the plaintiffs, says that “anybody walking around knows that a bishop is an official of the Holy See.” The Vatican is denying it, of course, and its legal counsel says that the bishops acted on their own.

But Marci Hamilton, a law professor who acted as co-counsel for plaintiffs in other priest sex abuse cases, says that for years Rome has been directing how bishops handle these types of cases. She pointed to the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who was accused of sexual activity with 200 deaf boys over a two-decade span starting in 1950.

According to documentation in the case, the diocese contacted Ratzinger about bringing the accused priest to a canonical trial (which could have stripped him of his collar), but was informed by a deputy for the cardinal that there should be no such proceeding. Murphy, who was old and sick at the time, should be allowed to die a priest, the bishop of the diocese was told.

Hamilton described the bishop in this case as “an agent or an employee of of their (Rome’s) decision-making.”

It’s hard to see how the Pope can talk his way out of that one.