By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
January 31, 2011
http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/114946074.html
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| Father Lawrence Murphy |
The Vatican has refused service of a federal lawsuit over its handling of the notorious sex offender Father Lawrence Murphy - a move that could delay the Milwaukee lawsuit for months if not years, victims' advocates said Monday.
Plaintiffs attorney Jeff Anderson and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests blasted the move as an attempt to subvert justice. And they urged Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who heads the U.S. Conference of Bishops, and Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee to intervene.
But a California-based lawyer for the Vatican dismissed it as a procedural step in keeping with U.S. laws on diplomatic relations that allow states to choose how to be served in lawsuits.
"It's not like it's some devious attempt to delay. It's part of the normal process of serving papers on a government under the laws of the United States," said Vatican attorney Jeffrey Lena.
The Vatican returned the documents to Milwaukee's federal courthouse on Thursday, saying they were "unwanted" and "undesirable," according to court records.
Federal court procedures require that service of a lawsuit be attempted initially by the simplest means - in this case by mail. However, the Vatican, which is a sovereign state, prefers to be served through diplomatic channels, according to Lena.
The service must now be attempted through the U.S. State Department, a process that took two years in a similar lawsuit in Oregon, according to Anderson.
He said the Vatican could have chosen to accept the service by mail.
"We urge the Vatican officials to stop hiding, to stop delaying and stop obstructing the healing that is being sought by the survivors," Anderson said.
Terry Kohut, 61, of Chicago, identified initially as John Doe 16, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee in April. It alleges that Pope Benedict XVI - then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - and other top Vatican officials knew of allegations regarding Murphy as early as 1995; that its culture of secrecy helped perpetuate clergy sex abuse; and that the Holy See was responsible for decisions local bishops made about the priest going back to the 1950s.
Kohut, who was featured in the September CNN special "What the Pope Knew," says he was molested by Murphy for years beginning at the age of 12 while he attended St. John's School for the Deaf in St. Francis. Murphy, who worked at the school from 1950 to 1974, is believed to have molested as many as 200 boys. He died in 1998.
Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Listecki, said the archbishop has not seen the request from SNAP and is not involved in the operations of the Vatican; a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York was unavailable for comment.
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