Thursday, January 11, 2007

It will be interesting to see how this plays out ...

Similar attempts have been made before but until now no judge has allowed a case to go forward. I don't understand all the legalities, but I doubt that the Vatican, a sovereign state, can really be sued by a US plaintiff or be considered under the jurisdiction of a US court. Kentucky judge allows sex abuse lawsuit against Vatican to go forward - USATODAY.com

3 comments:

Napoleon said...

Even if the suit is successful, I wouldn't think that the Vatican technically has any assets in the U.S. Without assests no court could enforce such a law suit. Unless the Apostolic Nuncio is directly owned/controlled by the Vatican.

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

The Apostolic Nunciature is owned and operated by the Holy See, of course. But, it would have diplomatic immunity. As would the Vatican, as I said, as a sovereign state. Sovereign states just cannot be sued in the courts of another country ... or so I thought.

Anonymous said...

My son is the stepson to one of the plaintiffs in this case. Though I think the Catholic Church had the responsibility to report the abusers to the authorities, I also think that the parents of the children had the responsibility to turn it over to the authorities as well. The plaintiff in the case has already received a large financial settlement from the Archdiocese of Louisville. The fact that he is going after the Vatican makes me think it is only about pure Greed. He seems to enjoy playing the victim in front of the press, but should not be throwing so many stones with his personal background. He has been alledged to have been guilty of some of the same behaviors exhibited by his abuser. Hopefully, the Vatican will expose some information on this man to show that there are some true victims in this crisis and some opportunists.