From Yahoo link below:
(quote)
...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
attorneys' questions under oath.
Court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press show that Vatican
lawyers plan to argue that the pope has immunity as 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 that provides
proof of a cover-up
(unquote)
Were the priest 'agents of a state'? If diplomatic immunity affirmed by
the Kentucky court then it ups the anti into higher international.
court keeping Pope as head of state. Still responsible.
Non absolved if you do-don't.
m
_http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/03/_
(http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/03/)
Law firm implicates Vatican, Pope in abuse case By CHRISTINE ARMARIO AP
March 31, 2010 MIAMI - A South Florida law firm is implicating the
Vatican
and Pope Benedict XVI in its handling of a priest accused of sexually
abusing children. Jessica Arbour, an attorney representing one of the
alleged
victims, says documents show the Vatican was aware of Rev. Ernesto
Garcia-Rubio's misconduct as early as 1968. Thirteen years later, Benedict
became head
of the Vatican office that received a petition from Garcia-Rubio seeking
to leave the priesthood. Arbour says the paperwork was lost. Arbour says
they do not have any evidence indicating children were abused during that
time.
A lawsuit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Miami, claiming it
was
negligent in its supervision and assignment of the reverend. Arbour says
it may be amended to include the Vatican.
_http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/31/AR201003310
0931.html_
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/31/AR2010033100931.html)
Vatican offers 3 reasons it's not liable for abuse By NICOLE WINFIELD,
AP Mar 30, 2010 VATICAN CITY â 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
attorneys' questions under oath. Court documents obtained Tuesday by The
Associated Press show that Vatican lawyers plan to argue that the pope has
immunity as 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 that provides proof of a cover-up.
The Holy See is trying to fend off the first U.S. case to reach the stage
of determining whether victims actually 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.
The case was filed in 2004 in Kentucky by three men who claim they were
abused by priests and claim negligence by the Vatican. Their attorney,
William McMurry, is seeking class-action status for the case, saying there
are
thousands of victims across the country.
This case is the only case that has been ever been filed against the
Vatican which has as its sole objective to hold the Vatican accountable
for all
the priest sex abuse ever committed in this country, he said in a phone
interview. There is no other defendant. There's no bishop, no priest.
The
Vatican is seeking to dismiss the suit before Benedict XVI can be
questioned or documents subpoenaed.
_http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100331/ap_on_re_eu/eu_the_vatican_s_defense_16_
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100331/ap_on_re_eu/eu_the_vatican_s_defense_16)
describes abuse
German bishop accused of beating orphaned girls April 1, 2010 One of the
Pope's closest conservative allies in Germany, Bishop Walter Mixa, has
been
accused of brutally beating and flogging children in his care. The Bishop
of Augsburg, 68, denies the claims by five former pupils at a
Catholic-run
orphanage and care facility. But they will be a source of deep
embarrassment
and concern in the Vatican: Bishop Mixa is part of a conservative axis in
Pope Benedict XVI's native Bavaria that has always backed the pontiff in
his most controversial decisions, from criticising the violence of Islam
in
Regensburg cathedral, to rehabilitating the Holocaust-sceptic Bishop
Richard
WilliamsonThe beatings were regular and always brutal.
At least 50 times Mr Mixa pulled down my trousers and beat me on the
bottom with a stick, five or six whacks each time, Mr Tagwerk
addedThe
blows were always administered in places where the bruising could be
hidden -
high up on the arm or on the bottom. One of the victims, a man who is now
44, reports being flogged with a carpet beater, 35 strokes each time._
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7082705.ece_
