U.S. Judge Asks Vatican To Serve Court Papers To Pope

[cleanhippie]

MILWAUKEE — A federal U.S. judge is asking the Vatican to cooperate in serving the pope and two other top officials with court papers that stem from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse by a priest in Wisconsin.

The request is an incremental step in a lawsuit that accuses the officials of conspiring to keep the allegations against the Milwaukee priest quiet. The Vatican is not obliged to comply with the request.

When faced with similar requests the Vatican has made service difficult, time-consuming and expensive by insisting, for example, that documentation be translated into Latin, one of the Vatican's official languages.

--snip--

The lawsuit, filed in April in U.S. federal court, names as defendants Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI; Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, and his predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

It claims the three men knew about allegations of sexual abuse at a Milwaukee-area school for the deaf, and called off internal punishment of the accused priest. The Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who died in 1998, was accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the school from 1950 to 1974.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/01/pope-court-papers-us-judge-vatican_n_747610.html?ir=Politics


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Glad to see SOMETHING being done, regardless of how fruitless it may be.

[Xipe Totec]

1. The pope got around to apologizing for Galileo's 1633 denunciation in 1992

There is hope that the pope will respond to this court summons by the year 2369.

[malaise]

3. ROFL

100% correct :rofl:

[cleanhippie]

4. And to think that the Catholic Church wants to be a 21st century leader!

WTF?

[Xipe Totec]

6. When ratboy stands in final judgment,

St Peter will say: "What the fuck were you smoking?"

[TexasObserver]

2. They won't do it. At least it will keep the Pope out of America.

[cleanhippie]

5. Thats what I was thinking. No Papal visits here, and thats a good thing.

[Abq_Sarah]

7. Not necessarily

The Pope has diplomatic immunity.

[TexasObserver]

8. Diplomatic immunity has no role in this civil case.

The pope will try to claim SOVEREIGN immunity, not diplomatic immunity. A judge will decide whether that applies.

You can believe whatever you wish, but a federal judge will decide what happens to the Pope if he comes to the USA. The pope may be able to wiggle out of it, eventually, but that won't undo the federal marshal serving him, if that's what a federal judge orders. To use police parlance, he may be able to beat the rap, but he won't be able to beat the ride.

The pope won't risk that, which means he won't be coming to America unless and until this matter has been resolved in his favor.