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	Vatican Tries to Block Attempt to Make Pope Face US Court over Abuse By Richard Owen The Times April 1, 2010 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7085176.ece The Vatican has moved to block an attempt to force the Pope to appear in court in the United States, after a lawyer filed a motion seeking his sworn testimony on what the Vatican knew about paedophile scandals. Giuseppe dalla Torre, head of the Vatican City Tribunal, said that Benedict XVI had diplomatic immunity as a head of state. The Vatican lawyers are also expected to argue that US bishops who oversaw priests who committed abuse were not Vatican employees. The Kentucky action by William McMurry comes after a lawsuit filed in 2004 by three men who allege that they were abused by priests in the state. The Vatican tried to get the case dismissed, but in 2007 a judge approved a process under which both sides can request information and documents, including the questioning of witnesses. The Kentucky motion alleges that Pope Benedict “discouraged prosecution of accused clergy and encouraged secrecy to protect the reputation of the Church” in his 24 years as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). The motion refers to documents published last week by The New York Times showing that, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope ignored two letters from Rembert Weakland, then the Archbishop of Milwaukee, about Father Lawrence Murphy, who was accused of sexually assaulting up to 200 deaf children between 1960 and 1974. The Vatican halted a secret church trial after Father Murphy appealed to Cardinal Ratzinger. The priest died in 1998. Monsignor Jerome Listecki, the present Archbishop of Milwaukee, said the decision had been taken at a local level, not by the Vatican. Pope Benedict had “been firm in his commitment to combat clergy sexual abuse”, he said. Cardinal William Levada, the Pope’s successor at the CDF, said that a lengthy trial would have been useless because the priest was dying by the time his diocese initiated a canonical trial. He noted that police had investigated but took no action. Attempts to embroil the Pope in the scandals because of his record as Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982 and later as head of doctrine are seen by the Vatican as “media attacks” inspired by lawyers acting on behalf of victims. At a ceremony in St Peter’s dedicated to the priesthood yesterday, the Pope said Christians must “keep the law and do what is just and good”, and priests were “called to oppose violence”. He made no mention of the scandals. He later washed the feet of 12 priests in a Holy Thursday ceremony at St John Lateran commemorating the washing of the disciples’ feet by Jesus before the Last Supper. Father Federico Lombardi, his spokesman, said “The Pope is a person of faith. He sees this as a test for him and the Church.” He stressed that the 82-year-old pontiff was fully able to cope with the demanding Easter schedule, which involves a torchlit Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) evening procession at the Colosseum today and his Urbi et Orbi (to the City and the World) address on Easter Sunday. At the Good Friday procession in 2005, shortly before he became Pope, he condemned “this filth in the Church”. However, this year’s meditations on the Stations of the Cross by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the former Vicar of Rome, do not refer even indirectly to the crisis. A letter was released yesterday showing that in 1963 the Servants of the Holy Paraclete, a US Catholic order, urged Pope Paul VI to remove paedophile priests. Anthony DeMarco, a Los Angeles lawyer representing abuse victims, who released the letter, said it proved that the Vatican had known of the matter for decades but failed to act.
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