Reply #6: No, unfortunately it's not from the Onion.... [View All]

[DeSwiss]

...and yes, Bennie is smack dab in the middle of the cover-ups. He was John Paul's inside guy back when the shit was first starting to hit the fan on all these sexual abuse scandals. Cardinal Ratzinger (his alias before his new gang-name of Pope Bennie), set the tone of stone-walling and obfuscation. Oh, and outright lying when all else failed. And when nothing else could hold back the flood, he went all sovereign on everybody:

Alan Curley, a Chicago attorney representing Mississippi, said Friday that the lawsuit alleged three theories of the Vatican's involvement. Curley said one was that the Vatican directly ordered the priest to get involved; another that it after-the-fact ratified the priest's actions; and the third, called apparent authority, that the priest acted under the trappings of the Vatican.

The Vatican asked U.S. District Judge William H. Barbour Jr. to dismiss the lawsuit on grounds it could not be sued under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The 1976 act restricts when foreign states can be sued in American courts, although it provides exceptions, such as when the foreign states engage in commercial or certain harmful activities in the United States.

Dale countered that Colagiovanni acted under the apparent authority of the Vatican and those actions fell under the commercial exception. In 2004, Barbour ruled the Vatican could be sued on the issue of apparent authority. The Vatican appealed to the 5th Circuit. The 5th Circuit, in reversing Barbour, said Dale's evidence was insufficient to support the commercial activity exception based on apparent authority. The court said Dale needed to show that the Vatican directed Colagiovanni's activities to advance its case on that issue.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/03/17/appeals_court_dismisses_one_miss_theory_in_vaticanfrankel_case/

- They're not above using loopholes. Here on earth, as it is in heaven. I guess.....