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	Suit: 2 Popes Enabled Chicago Pedophile Priest By Manya Brachear Chicago Tribune May 11, 2011 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-suit-vatican-covered-up-for-chicago-pedophile-priest-20110511,0,3816816.story Emboldened by a recent court ruling that ordered the Vatican to open its records about a priest accused of child sex abuse, a Minneapolis attorney has sued the Vatican on behalf of a mother whose son was molested by former Roman Catholic priest Daniel McCormack. Announcing the suit at a news conference in Chicago today, attorney Jeff Anderson said he had sufficient evidence to hold Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor Pope John Paul II accountable for enabling McCormack’s long pattern of child sex abuse, from the late 1990s until 2006. “This case is not really about what Daniel McCormack did as much as it is about those at the top allowing him to do it,” Anderson said, referring to the chain of command he believes enabled McCormack to continue abusing children. That chain of command includes Cardinal Francis George, he said. Jeffrey Lena, counsel to the Holy See in the U.S., said the complaint has no merit and “rehashes the same tired theories already rejected by U.S. courts.” “Under Jeff Anderson’s view of the case, he settled with who he considers an agent of the Vatican,” Lena said. “The critical point is that at the time of the event the priest in question was not an agent of the Holy See nor was he an employee of the Holy See. The Holy See was not responsible for his supervision, and the person was not acting on the Holy See’s behalf.” To win his case, Anderson must prove an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which limits the circumstances under which sovereign nations may be sued in U.S. courts, federal or state. Lena has argued that U.S. courts can claim jurisdiction only if the foreign government -— in this case, the Vatican -— is directly responsible for inflicting harm. Anderson says he has sufficient evidence to prove that the hierarchy and the protocols it upholds allowed McCormack to continue abusing children. McCormack, 42, pleaded guilty in July 2007 to abusing five boys and served 2 1/2 years of his five-year sentence. He was removed from the priesthood that same year. Shortly before he was to be paroled last September, the Illinois attorney general and the Cook County state's attorney filed a joint petition under the state's Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act to block his release. McCormack has remained in custody while that case is argued in court. Anderson points to a handful of men who he believes withheld information about allegations against McCormack dating back to his seminary days. Some have since become bishops. “It’s not that they’re bad men,” Anderson said. “They want children to be protected. The only reason that they would permit this to have happened as recently as it did is because they’re required to by the Vatican.” A federal judge in Oregon ruled last month that the Vatican must open its records in the discovery process of a case involving a priest with the Servite Order. Anderson intends to prove that the priest was an employee of the Vatican. He said the small legal victory encouraged him to go after the Vatican for McCormack, too. “We have some legal precedence and some authority that really does make me believe we can do this,” he said. While the suit is ambitious and may take years to resolve, Bruce Boyer, an attorney with the Civitas ChildLaw Clinic at Loyola University, said it could serve an important purpose. “It’s difficult to fund litigation that the profession may look at as quixotic,” Boyer said. “There is an important secondary goal, which is to try to change the culture in which the church operates.” The mother represented in the case was one of a group of clients who settled with the Chicago Archdiocese in 2008. Anderson said this lawsuit would not undo that settlement, but in fact might press the archdiocese to finally release records it agreed to provide in that 2008 settlement. In a statement, the archdiocese expressed frustration that Anderson would accuse them of stalling. “We are surprised that Mr. Anderson is making an accusation like this because the Archdiocese is engaged in an ongoing mediation process with him that includes provisions about how to resolve disputes over the production of documents,” the statement said. “Mr. Anderson has not invoked any of the processes required under these agreements for the resolution of disputes. Instead, he has made accusations in a press conference and in a lawsuit against the Holy See.”
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