Roman Catholic Church/Vatican is a Country

[Angry Dragon]

This is a response to the Obama administration's brief to the Supreme Court that backed the Vatican's claim of immunity from lawsuits arising from cases of sexual abuse by priests in the United States.

This country, the United States of America was started by people looking for adventure, more land, greed, and people that were tired of being told what religion to follow. This last group was tired of having their religion tied to the state/government. I think this fact is lost on a number of people in today's world.

Back when this country was forming the state and church were headed by different people. I feel the church had too much influence on the state and it make for an abuse of power on both sides.

What we have in the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican is a unique situation in that the head of the church is also the head of the country. I say it is very hard to determine what laws are handed down from one side or the other. I do not believe they have ever answered that question. They just want to have their cake and eat it too. The Pope claims to be the head of the Roman Catholic Church and head of the Vatican. Busy man, trying to control millions around the world.

I have no problem if the Vatican wants to be treated as a country. If they want to hide behind the defense of being a country, I say let them. If they need to do this to hide their criminal ways, to hide their sexual abuses, their unholy obsession about sex, their abuse of woman, their abuse of children then they are free to do this.

If they are a country so they can not be held responsible for unleashing pedophiles onto the world then we must treat them as a country in ALL instances. The are a foreign country so all their members are foreign agents. Anyone claiming to be a Catholic should have to registrar with the federal government as a foreign agent. I would not feel safe walking down the street unless this was done. I would not know who to trust.

They would be barred from trying to get laws passed in this country because that would be an act of subversion of a foreign country, namely this country. If they are a citizen of this country it could be looked at as an act of treason. They give money to the church and it finds it way into a foreign country. This scares me, for I have no idea what this foreign country does with this money. Could they be using it to finance terrorists?? No way to find out. Should stop all tax deductions made to the Catholic Church because those are payments to a foreign government and those kinds of monies are not tax deductible.

Perhaps it is time for the good Catholics to stand up and be counted. If they do not then they will be looked upon as a foreign agent and treated as such. If it is okay with you that your leaders want to hide behind a fence called a country then you need to decide if you want to be part of that country that hides pedophiles.

Be an American Catholic or a catholic country. Your choice.

[sandnsea]

1. The Vatican IS A Country.

They are not the United States and they do not have to organize the way we do.

If England can't be sued for something the Queen does, then the Vatican can't be sued for what Vatican residents do.

That's just a fact, like it or not.

That doesn't mean that US citizens, priests, have immunity because they are not citizens of the Vatican, afaik.

[Scurrilous]

2. The Know Nothing Party had nothing on you. n/t

[tritsofme]

3. This is some crazy wild stuff.

I won't even bother.

[eShirl]

4. This sounds to me like some of the sentiment President Kennedy had to overcome.