lawsuit against the Vatican
A US federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit against the Vatican over claims it covered up decades of child sex abuse by priests can go ahead.
The case was filed by three men from Kentucky who say they were abused by clergy in their childhood.
It centres on a 1962 directive from the Vatican – made public in 2003 – which told church officials not to disclose sex abuse complaints against priests.
The US Roman Catholic Church has been plagued by a string of abuse scandals.
On a visit to the US earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI criticised US bishops for their handling of the child sex abuse crisis, saying their response had sometimes been very poor.
In ruling the Kentucky lawsuit could go ahead, the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier decision by a district judge.
Although the Vatican is largely protected from lawsuits, the court ruled that clergymen could be taken to court as part of their role as Roman Catholic Church employees.
I’m glad that the pope wants to prosecute these priests. After so many American Clergyman covered up these acts of sexual abuse a lot of Catholics began to lose faith in the church. A lot of churches around here even closed down. Even my grandmother who’s been a lector in the Catholic Church for years said she didn’t know what was going to happen with the churches after that big scandal in Boston. She was pretty disgusted as were the rest of us.
1 comment November 25th, 2008
ROME – An art museum in northern Italy said Thursday it will continue displaying a sculpture portraying a green frog nailed to a cross that has angered Pope Benedict XVI and local officials.