Slovenia Church Warns of Lawsuit Flood after Abuse Ruling

The Globalpost
November 13, 2013

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/131113/slovenia-church-warns-lawsuit-flood-after-abuse-ruling

Slovenia's Catholic Church has warned a court decision ordering it to compensate a victim of sexual abuse could open the floodgates for lawsuits against other institutions, like schools or hospitals.

Local media reported a court ruling over the weekend that ordered the archdiocese of Maribor, Slovenia's second city, to pay 80,000 euros ($107,000) to a woman who had been sexually abused as a child by one of its priests.

"Court sentences have to be obeyed," the Slovenian Bishops' Conference said in a statement on its website.

But it warned: "We are convinced it will open the doors for lawsuits not only against the Church, but also other institutions in education or health, for example."

The sentence "expands the understanding of the employer's responsibility, as it was known so far in Slovenia and the European Union," the country's highest Church authority added.

The priest, Karl Jost, was accused of abusing at least 16 girls under the age of 15, and was brought to court but died in 2007 before he could be sentenced.

One of the victims then filed a lawsuit against the Maribor archdiocese, charging that it was responsible for the priest's actions and demanding 140,000 euros in compensation.

Slovenia was spared the wave of sexual abuse allegations that hit the Roman Catholic Church across Europe in 2009 and 2010, including in Ireland, Germany and Austria. The Jost case was the first of its kind in the country.