Inmiddels zijn we 23 jaar, ongelooflijk veel slachtofferontwikkelingen, kennis, onderzoek, rechtspraak kerkhierarchische excuses en minstens 1, 5 billioen dollars alleen al in de VS, plus alle internationale ontwikkelingen die daarvan mede het gevolg zijn, verder.
En stukken die boven water kwamen.
Gaat het verdwijnen van Bush cs, daarmee de eerdere interventie van Buitenlandse Zaken tégen het gebruik van de Foreign Souvereign Immunities Act nog een fascinerend gevolg hebben?
Australie Catholica schreef van de week, in de stukken over
het bijeen te roepen Amerikaans Katholiek Concilie 2011 over die onstuitbare kracht van leken in de RKKEn op welke termijn dat historisch onwaarschijnlijke proces dan ook zal gebeuren:
wat een eind aan zo'n 1000 jaar investituurstrijd: de veiligheid van kinderen!
Wall Street Journal By Suzanne Sataline
25 november 2008
A federal appeals court has permitted a lawsuit over alleged sexual abuse to proceed against the Vatican, creating potential liability for the seat of the Roman Catholic faith for the activities of Catholic clergy in the U.S.
Monday's ruling, issued by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, marks the first time a court at so high a level has recognized that the Vatican could be liable for the negligence in sexual-abuse cases brought in the U.S.
The ruling is seen as a breakthrough by those allegedly abused by priests. Investigators and grand juries have found several instances where the church failed to report alleged abusers and covered up alleged misdeeds to protect them.
Jeffrey S. Lena, the attorney for the Holy See, said he was not "presently inclined" to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision.
It remains to be seen whether the Vatican, which is a sovereign state recognized by the U.S. government, will make further arguments that it is immune from U.S. civil proceeding.
Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have paid out at least $1.5 billion to alleged abuse victims, most of this since the scandal broke open nationwide in 2002.
The appeals court found that the church government may be held liable for actions taken in the U.S. based on the Vatican's policies or directives.
"What the court has allowed us to do is proceed against the Vatican for the conduct of the U.S. bishops because of the bishops' failure to ... report child abuse," said William F. McMurry, the attorney for three men who claim they were abused as children by priests in the Louisville, Ky., archdiocese. He is seeking class-action status in the district-court case.
The ruling marks the first time that a federal appeals court recognized that the Vatican could be liable under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a 1976 law that governs when a foreign nation or its agents can be sued, said Marci Hamilton, a constitutional-law scholar who is part of the legal team in the Louisville case.
"If someone can crack that barrier of immunity, it opens the door to other claims against the Catholic church," says Jonathan Levy, a Washington, D.C., attorney who represents concentration-camp survivors in a suit against numerous parties including the Vatican bank. The Vatican, in that case, prevailed in its claim of sovereign immunity.
Mr. Lena, the lawyer for the Holy See in the Louisville case, said Monday's ruling is a small step and one that is far from establishing whether Vatican policy contributed to thousands of incidents of abuse that have been alleged over several decades. "We're miles away from liability," he said. The ruling is "very incremental."
One of the central pieces of evidence in the case is a 1962 memo, issued by the Vatican and disclosed by reporters in 2003, which directs Catholic bishops to keep silent about claims of sex abuse. The document was approved by Pope John the 23rd.
Monday's ruling will allow the plaintiffs' case to proceed in U.S. District Court in Louisville. Among the legal questions yet to be decided in the case is whether U.S. bishops are employees of the Vatican, and whether they acted on the Holy See's orders.
—Nathan Koppel contributed to this article.
Write to Suzanne Sataline at suzanne.sataline@wsj.com
SNAP Press Statement
For immediate release:
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sex abuse case vs. Vatican can proceed, judge rules; victims respond
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell)
We're thrilled by this ruling. We're one step closer toward protecting more kids, exposing more predators, and detering future recklessness, and holding top Catholic officials accountable for the rape of hundreds of thousands of kids. Employers everywhere - religious and secular - must learn that endangering children and enabling predators is wrong and will be punished.
The legal process drags on slowly and church bureaucrats fight justice vigorously, so we caution victims and Catholics against prematurely getting their hopes up. But this is a very encouraging sign and very long overdue step in the long march toward justice, prevention and healing.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 17 years and have more than 8,000 members across the country. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Peter Isely (414-429-7259) Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688), Mary Grant (626-419-2930), Mark Serrano (703-727-4940)
http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20081124/UPDATES01/81124023
Appeals court lets Vatican sex abuse case proceed
November 24, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A federal appeals court has ruled that part a class-action sex abuse lawsuit against the Vatican can proceed.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said on Monday that three men may pursue their claim that top church officials should have warned the public or local authorities of known or suspected sexual abuse of children by priests in the Archdiocese of Louisville.
The ruling upholds a similar decision by U.S. District Judge John Heyburn II of Louisville in May 2007.
The ruling also upholds Heyburn's decision to dismiss claims that the Holy See was negligent in failing to provide safe care to the children entrusted to the clergy.
Ruling limited to actions on U.S. soil
Three Kentucky natives can pursue a lawsuit against the Vatican alleging it covered up sexual abuse by priests -- but only if those decisions were carried out on U.S. soil.
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That was the ruling of a federal appeals court yesterday that upheld a similar ruling by U.S. District Judge John Heyburn II of Louisville in May 2007.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed with Heyburn that the Vatican -- as a sovereign state recognized by the U.S. government -- is largely protected from lawsuits.
But the court ruled that the Vatican could be sued over claims that bishops and others covered up sexual abuse as part of their role as Roman Catholic Church employees, as long as that cover-up occurred in the United States.
Attorney Jeffrey Lena, representing the Vatican, said he's "gratified by the court's work and that it has in our view significantly narrowed the prospects of the plaintiffs' claims."
He declined to say whether he'd appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The three men are represented by Louisville attorney William McMurry, who sued the Vatican in 2004, a year after he negotiated a then-near-record $25.7 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Louisville.
McMurry has said the Vatican itself, and not just local dioceses, needs to account for sexual abuse by clergy.
The three plaintiffs -- Michael Turner, James O'Bryan and Donald Poppe -- have alleged they were abused as boys by priests in the Louisville archdiocese between the 1920s and 1970s.
They are seeking class-action status on behalf of all U.S. abuse victims, contending that the Vatican for generations has orchestrated a policy of covering up sexual abuse by its priests, ordering bishops not to report abusers to police or warn parishioners.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs could not challenge actions abroad taking place in Rome or elsewhere -- including the creation of a 1962 Vatican document calling for strict secrecy in handling priests accused of sexual offenses.
"The actual promulgation of the 1962 policy … occurred abroad," said the appellate court decision.
But the Vatican can be sued over church officials who carried out the policy in the United States, the court said.
The appeals court denied McMurry's bid to sue the Vatican -- the world's tiniest nation -- in its capacity as a private international religious organization, rather than as a sovereign state.
The United States itself filed a supporting brief, arguing that U.S. recognition of the Vatican as a sovereign state needed to be respected and that, if the lawsuit was to proceed at all, it should only do so under one of the exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
McMurry was also denied in his efforts to sue under some of those exceptions -- such as an exception covering foreign governments involved in commercial activities.
The appeals-court ruling is "careful and seems relatively comprehensive going through all the machinations" of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who regularly tracks Sixth Circuit cases. "It doesn't really tell you what might happen ultimately on the merits, but it leaves the case alive to proceed."
McMurry did not return phone messages as of early yesterday evening.
Unless either side appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, the case now returns to the U.S. District Court for Western Kentucky for evidence gathering and other pretrial activities.
A nationwide survey by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found that 10,667 people alleged abuse by 4,392 priests between 1950 and 2002.
More than 300 people sued the Archdiocese of Louisville and two local religious orders, alleging abuse by priests and other church workers.
In a related matter, Judge Heyburn last month denied McMurry's motion to take the deposition of Pope Benedict XVI, saying McMurry had not made a strong enough case that such a step was needed.
McMurry contended that the testimony was urgent because the aging pope is the only living witness to the establishment of the 1962 policy.
Reporter Peter Smith can be reached at (502) 582-4469.
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