The Vatican’s potential liability is governed exclusively by the “Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” he said, a federal statute which sets out the conditions under which a sovereign state may be sued.
“The only way you can obtain jurisdiction over the Holy See is through the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” Lena said. “The fact that a claim may proceed against another entity under the Alien Tort Claims Act is irrelevant.”
“The Alien Tort Claims Act is not going to become a basis” for suing the Vatican
Sex abuse ruling in Los Angeles doesn’t affect Vatican, attorney says
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ROME -- Refusal by a federal judge in Los Angeles to dismiss a sex abuse case against the Catholic church both in the United States and Mexico, under a law that allows American courts to consider foreign claims, has no implications for efforts to sue the Vatican, the lawyer who represents the Vatican in U.S. litigation said today.
Unlike other church entities, attorney Jeffrey Lena said, the Vatican is a sovereign state, so its potential liability is limited by a special federal law.
On the other hand, Lena said, the Los Angeles case eventually could have implications for other Catholic institutions, such as dioceses and religious orders, if the “Alien Tort Claims Act” of 1789 were to be recognized as a basis to bring suits for abuse that took place outside the United States, even if neither the victim nor the abuser are American citizens.
Lena spoke to NCR in Rome.
On Monday, a U.S. district judge in Los Angeles, Josephine S. Tucker, turned down a motion to dismiss a sex abuse case brought by a Mexican man who claims he was abused by a priest who moved between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Mexico.
According to court documents, the priest, Nicholas Aguilar Rivera, is accused of sexually abusing as many as 60 children, including 26 in Los Angeles, in the late 1980s. He was laicized, meaning formally removed from the priesthood, in 2009.
The lawsuit is believed to be the first time a sex abuse suit against the Catholic church has been allowed to proceed under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The suit asserts that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and the bishop of the Mexican diocese of Tehuacán protected the priest and helped him avoid authorities. The Tehuacán bishop at the time, Norberto Rivera, is now the cardinal of Mexico City.
Lawyers for the Los Angeles archdiocese sought dismissal on the grounds that a U.S. court lacked jurisdiction since the alleged abuse took place in Mexico and both the plaintiff and the accused priest are Mexican citizens. Two previous lawsuits in American courts for abuse that occurred in Mexico have been dismissed.
Lawyers for the Los Angeles archdiocese say the suit lacks merit and will eventually be dismissed.
Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who represents the alleged victim, called Monday’s ruling “huge,” saying it opens “a door that has never been opened before.”
At first blush, some observers may wonder if the ruling could pave the way for what plaintiffs lawyers and victims’ advocates have long regarded as the ultimate prize – suing the Vatican.
Lena, a California-based lawyer who defends the Vatican in American courts, said it doesn’t have any such effect. The Vatican’s potential liability is governed exclusively by the “Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” he said, a federal statute which sets out the conditions under which a sovereign state may be sued.
“The only way you can obtain jurisdiction over the Holy See is through the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” Lena said. “The fact that a claim may proceed against another entity under the Alien Tort Claims Act is irrelevant.”
“The Alien Tort Claims Act is not going to become a basis” for suing the Vatican, Lena said.
At the moment, there are four sex abuse lawsuits in the United States which name the Vatican as a defendant, though only one so far has been successfully served and in presently before a court. That’s the case of Doe v. Holy See in Oregon, in which a federal judge is currently weighing requests by lawyers for the victim to demand documents from the Vatican and to depose senior personnel, including the pope himself as well as the current and former Secretaries of State.
There are two other lawsuits unrelated to sexual abuse in which the Vatican is a defendant also pending in American courts, Lena said, one related to a commercial dispute and the other to an insurance scam.
None of those cases, Lena said, will be affected by Monday’s ruling.
Though cautioning that a refusal to dismiss is a very preliminary step in a legal proceeding, Lena said the case in Los Angeles bears watching, if it is eventually determined that sexual abuse is an offense for which foreign entities that aren’t sovereign states can be held liable under the Alien Tort Claims Act.
This is absolutely
Submitted by L.Newington (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011.
This is absolutely disgraceful. With all the direction coming from Rome in the handling of these cases it's ludicrous.
You and I would be imprisoned and 'wired', they call it down under, thats why they have to be segregatede, and this 'diplomatic immunity' caper certainly will never be a deterent in the future.
The Archbishops, bishops and Cardinals will be 'called home' safe and sound, and I'm not referring to heaven either.
God knows where their conscience's are and 'special dispensations' won't do them any good when they stand before His throne on Judgement Day.
This is the fear of hell engrained in catholics as children at the age of reason for much less a crime.
Thankfully I was never reared as one.
Seems to me that suing an
Submitted by Russell (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011.
Seems to me that suing an entity like the Vatican State is really of no real help.
Suing the Archbishop of Rome and his appointees doing business of the Church seems to be more on point.
This means that lawsuits should be directed:
1) to the Archbishop of Rome, currently Benedict xvi.
2) the Diocese / Archdiocese of Rome
3) if there is a failure on the part of the current Archbishop, and his appointees to appear in court then extradition proceeding should begin, and / or the international court should be called on.
The German's feel the same
Submitted by drwho13 (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011.
The German's feel the same way, and want to sue the Pope in the World Court for Crimes Against Humanity. Even if not successful, it keeps the evil secrets of The RC Church in the public eye, worldwide. Additionally, it places them in with the rest on the despots who have been involved with The International Criminal Court.
http://www.kanzlei-sailer.de/pope-lawsuit-2011.pdf
To the Prosecutor
The International Criminal Court
Dr. Luis Moreno Ocampo
Maanweg, 174
NL-2516 AB Den HaagFebruary 14, 2011
Dr. Joseph Ratzinger,
Pope of the Roman Catholic Church
on grounds of
Crimes against HumanityAccording to Art. 7 ICC Statute
Dr. jur. Christian Sailer
Dr. jur. Gert-Joa.
Don’t forget, what goes
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011.
Don’t forget, what goes around, comes around. It is only a question of time when there will be court cases against American citizens in other countries (for example in China, Brazil, Russia, etc.), by people who are not necessarily from those countries and who have well-founded or less well-founded (retaliatory or politically motivated) grievances against some US individuals or institutions.
If people in the US engage in this kind of precedent-setting high profile vindictive prosecutions, people will follow the example. It is only a question of time.
Let me see:
a. Bishops are
Submitted by Joseph Jaglowicz (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011.
Let me see:
a. Bishops are lackeys of the Vatican, which receives nominations for episcopal appointments, examines candidates' backgrounds, approves episcopal appointments, and transfers bishops to dioceses within the U.S. as well as to higher offices within the Vatican,
b. Bishops use their episcopal authority to transfer pervert clerics between/among U.S. dioceses,
c. The Vatican knows full well of these sinful and dysfunctional movements between U.S. dioceses and does nothing to intervene --- even though canon law gives the Vatican the ultimate authority to defrock or not defrock a cleric,
d. All the aforementioned occur within the context of ecclesial governance, not within the sphere of the state's jurisdiction (which is not to ignore the state's inherent criminal jurisdiction over allegations of child molestation),
e. The Vatican wears two "hats", i.e., international church HQ and international city-state, and its papal nuncio (ambassador) to the U.S. represents the Vatican in both areas, and
f. The Vatican's lawyer contends --- in so many words --- that the Vatican can be held liable only under a federal law dealing with a sovereign state like the Vatican.
So ---
The Vatican wants to have its cake and eat it, too. Bishops are, in fact, beholden to the Vatican. They take their "marching orders" from the Vatican. Legal definitions aside, they function like any other managerial employee of an international corporation/institution.
But the Vatican contends that it cannot be held liable because it is a sovereign city-state.
Bull$h!t!!!
It's long past time to hold the Vatican accountable as a de facto employer, not as a city-state. If a Vatican employee breaks criminal law while engaged in church business, prosecute in a U.S. court. If a Vatican employee breaks criminal law while performing official city-state business, then send him back to Rome.
Child molestation and its coverup by bishop and Vatican is not sovereign city-state business. It is church business.
I, for one, am damn tired of seeing Uncle Sam kowtow to the Vatican. We Catholics have seen enough of this crap already.
Get mean, Uncle Sam!!!
Get mean!!!
f.
Our American government has a
Submitted by Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011.
Our American government has a needed role to play in challenging the diplomatic immunity of the Vatican, of Pope Benedict XVI, and of the Curia.
As a Catholic physician who has been following cases of child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, I have come to the belief that Pope Benedict and the hierarchy lack the insight of the theft of childhoods that their policies have caused throughout the world. I do not think that these Church leaders understand that sex abuse against children is not only a human weakness and sin, but it is also a serious crime.
The Roman Catholic Church leaders act as if they are above the law. In the shameful cases of the sexual abuse of children by priests, the Roman Catholic Church leaders continue to be more protective of the abusers than of the abused, maybe because these men do not have children of their own and are out of touch with normal human life.
Instead of the response of a loving parent wanting to protect their children at all costs, the bishops in the States are re-victimizing the victims, by the legal games that they, the bishops, are playing against the victims in court.
I recommend the book THE CASE OF THE POPE, in order to get an understanding of the nebulous claims of the tiny piece of land of the Vatican within the city of Rome. The Vatican claims that it is a sovereign state and should have diplomatic immunity. The author of the book is Geoffrey Robertson, Queen's Counsel, human rights lawyer, and judge at the United Nations in New York. He gives an opinion that needs to be explored so that the RCC will be made accountable for its worldwide crimes against humanity.
The American government can not support and defend the indefensible. Justice must come to the victims/survivors of priest sexual abuse.
Sincerely,
Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh
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