Oregon Appeals Court Dismisses Paedophilia Lawsuit against the Holy See

Vatican Insider
August 7, 2013

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/stati-uniti-united-states-estrdos-unidos-27051/

American faithful in St. Peter's Square

According to the court’s verdict the Vatican cannot be accused for sexual abuse acts committed by priests

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the Holy See cannot be accused of being directly responsible for acts of sexual abuse committed by any member of the clergy in the world, Vatican Radio reports.

The lawsuit against the Holy See for alleged involvement in a sex abuse case was filed in 2002 and was dismissed by the appeals court today. The case involved an Irish priest who was sued for child abuse in 1965, was reported to the Holy See by his religious order and was consequently reduced to the lay state within the space of a few weeks.

The court ruled that the lawsuit "never should have been filed in the first place" and dismissed the premise that the Holy See is directly informed about the activities of all Catholic priests and that it has control over all priests across the world and should therefore be held directly responsible for sexual crimes committed by any member of the clergy. The case was dismissed precisely because the court recognised that this was a false premise.

As the Holy See’s lawyer Jeffrey S. Lena explained in a statement, priests are under the control of their local superiors and that the Vatican was not the priests’ “employer” as would be the case in a company context. He also said the Holy See did not receive or hold information on all priests across the world.

In an interview with Vatican Radio English section, Mr. Lena said that holding the Vatican responsible for such offences would mean treating the Holy See like a big company and the Pope as its CEO. He said the court dismissed this. Lena remarked that the judge followed developments in the case closely and met all parties and witnesses involved, so he was able to carry out a thorough investigation into the Holy See’s alleged involvement. "What the documents show, very clearly, is that the Holy See did not have any knowledge of this priest's propensity for abuse until after the abuse occurred, when it was notified by the petition for laicization that arrived from the priest's religious order. And when that petition arrived, it was granted by the Holy See without delay," Lena told Vatican Radio.

Mr. Lena recalled two other cases in which similar lawsuits were dismissed: the O’Bryan case in Kentucky and the John V. Doe case, also known as the Murphy case, in Wiskonsin.