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	Minnesota Woman Helps File Criminal Complaint against Pope Star Tribune September 13, 2011 http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/129729158.html [court filing] Minnesota woman Megan Peterson -- who last week settled a lawsuit with the Diocese of Crookston over allegations she was raped by her parish priest when she was 14 -- is among a group of clergy sex abuse victims urging the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the pope and top Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based nonprofit legal group, requested the inquiry on Tuesday on behalf of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The New York Times reports the formal complaint of nearly 80 pages is the “most substantive effort yet to hold the pope and the Vatican accountable in an international court for sexual abuse by priests.” “A spokesperson at the court said that the prosecutor’s office would examine the papers, “as we do with all such communications.” The first step will be “to analyze whether the alleged crimes fall under the court’s jurisdiction,” Florence Olara, the prosecutor’s spokeswoman said. “Complaints about the Vatican and child abuse by Catholic priests have been received at the court before, court records showed. But Ms. Olara said that details are not normally disclosed by the court unless a case goes forward. “Lawyers familiar with the I.C.C. said that it was unlikely that complaint against the Vatican would fit the court’s mandate to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. But even an examination of the issue by the prosecution office would appear to serve the plaintiffs’ goal of getting international attention for the case. Last week, it was announced the northwestern Minnesota diocese of Crookston agreed to pay $750,000 to Peterson. Peterson, now 21, said she was raped several times by the Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul, a priest from India who served at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Greenbush in 2004. Jeyapaul is charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct, but returned to India before charges were filed in 2006. He denies the allegations. Peterson was among the group of members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), who attended a press conference in Voorburg, near The Hague, Netherlands, to discuss the complaint.
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