Vatican wants judge to reject bid to get Pope to testify in US court

Jyeshtha Krushna Prathama,Kaliyug Varsha 5112

The Vatican is asking a US judge to reject an attempt to question Pope Benedict XVI under oath in a sex abuse lawsuit on the grounds that there has been no evidence of a link to church officials in Rome.

The arguments filed on Thursday in the US District Court in Kentucky also say that forcing Benedict, a head of state, to give a deposition would violate international law. The US considers the Vatican to be a sovereign nation.

The lawsuit accuses the Vatican, referred to in papers as the Holy See, of orchestrating a cover-up of priests sexually abusing children throughout the US.

Louisville attorney William McMurry asked to depose Benedict and other Vatican officials in a motion in March, and the filing on Thursday was a response.

Mr McMurry has also asked that the Vatican turn over administrative documents and respond to questions related to the abuse scandal in the US.

Lawyers for the Vatican argue that thousands of documents provided in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville several years ago have turned up no connection to Rome.

The Louisville archdiocese reached a settlement in 2003 with more than 240 abuse victims represented by Mr McMurry for $US25 million ($A28.87 million).

Mr McMurry will have an opportunity to reply to the Vatican’s latest arguments in a response to the court.

While US dioceses have been sued over abuse by priests, the Kentucky lawsuit is the first US case to make it to the stage of determining whether victims have a negligence claim against the Vatican.

Filed in 2004 by three men abused by priests in the Louisville diocese, it argues in part that US bishops should be considered employees or officials of the Holy See.

The Vatican’s filing said Mr McMurry had access to "thousands and thousand of pages of documents" from the Louisville archdiocese suit and has not found any trail that led to the Holy See.

"There is no evidence whatsoever in the archdiocesan files showing that the archbishop was the Holy See’s ’employee’ or that the archbishop followed a mandatory Holy See policy relating to the handling of child sexual abuse by priests," the Vatican said in the filing.

Mr McMurry has said the court will use Kentucky law to determine the employment relationship between the Vatican and American bishops.

"I have yet to meet a Catholic, expert or otherwise, who does not believe that the Holy See has the absolute right to control the day-to-day activities of a bishop’s work," Mr McMurry said in an email message to the Associated Press last week.

The Vatican is also asking US District Judge John G Heyburn to rule first on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The motion filed by Vatican lawyers in mid-May argued that US bishops are not Vatican employees and that Rome therefore can’t be held liable for their actions.

Source: Herald sun

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