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	Vatican Can Be Sued on Abuse, Judge Says Chicago Tribune [Oregon] June 8, 2006 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0606080262 jun08,1,816269.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed U.S. District Court -- A federal judge in Oregon ruled Wednesday that the Vatican can be sued in connection with the sexual misconduct of a Servite priest who is accused of abusing children in Ireland, Chicago and Portland, Ore. The suit accuses the Vatican of conspiring with Roman Catholic bishops and the Servite religious order more than 50 years ago to transfer Rev. Andrew Ronan to St. Philip High School in Chicago after he molested a minor in an Irish parish. The priest abused three other minors in the early 1960s at the now-closed West Side high school, according to the lawsuit. Ronan was then transferred to a church in Portland, where he allegedly abused the plaintiff as a teenager. Ronan has since died. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman ruled that because the Holy See had ultimate authority over bishops and religious superiors, it did not qualify for foreign sovereign immunity and could be named as a defendant.
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