Attorneys try to squelch U.S. suit seeking papal testimony on scandal
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 2:51 AM
By Nicole Winfield
VATICAN CITY -- Dragged deeper than ever into the clerical sex-abuse scandal, the Vatican is launching a legal defense that it hopes will shield the pope from a lawsuit in Kentucky seeking to have him answer questions under oath.
Court documents obtained yesterday by the Associated Press show that Vatican attorneys plan to argue that the pope has immunity as a head of state, that American bishops who oversaw abusive priests weren't employees of the Vatican, and that a 1962 document is not the "smoking gun" proving a cover-up.
The Holy See is trying to fend off the first U.S. case to reach the stage of determining whether victims have a claim against the Vatican itself for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about Roman Catholic priests who molested children.
Read further...
No comments:
Post a Comment