The scandal grows, and those in charge at the Vatican are circling the wagons.
Top Vatican legal experts, who must be working double-time these days, have said that Pope Benedict cannot be called to testify at any trial because he has immunity as a head of state. That man, Giuseppe dalla Torre, head of the Vatican's tribunal, outlined the Vatican's strategy to defend the pope from being forced to testify in several lawsuits concerning sexual abuse which are currently moving through the U.S. legal system, by saying that "[t]he pope is certainly a head of state, who has the same juridical status as all heads of state."
Lawyers representing victims of sexual abuse by priests in several cases in the United States have said they want the pope to testify in an attempt to try to prove the Vatican was negligent. But the pope is protected by diplomatic immunity because more than 170 countries, including the United States, have diplomatic relations with the Vatican, recognizing it as a sovereign state and the pope as its sovereign head.
Dalla Torre also rejected the suggestion that U.S. bishops, some of whom are accused of moving molesters from parish to parish instead of turning them in to police, could be considered Vatican employees, making their "boss" ultimately responsible. He said: "[the] Church is not a multi-national corporation."
I would beg to differ.
Dalla Torre also denied allegations by U.S. lawyers, and critics of the Church, that Vatican documents from 1962 and 2001 encouraged local bishops not to report sexual abuse cases. He re-stated the Vatican's position that the documents, one of which called for procedures to remain secret, did not suggest to bishops that they should not report cases to authorities.
"Secrecy served above all to protect the victim and also the accused, who could turn out to be innocent, and it regarded only the canonical (church) trial and did not substitute the penal process. There is nothing that prohibited anyone (in the Church) from giving information to civil authorities."
But then, please explain why this never happened in over forty years. If priests and clerics and bishops and cardinals could report these acts of violence against children to the authorities, why didn't they?
Giuseppe dalla Torre gave his interview to Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper just as Pope Benedict began Holy Thursday services in St Peter's Basilica and Catholics marked the most solemn week of the liturgical calendar, culminating on Sunday in Easter Day.The pope never once, in his sermon, referred to the scandal of pedophile.
He may be immune from testifying, but one would argue that, as the head of the Church, he would have a moral obligation to do anything and everything he could to protect these children and remove the pedophiles from the church.
His immunity is immoral.
The whole Catholic church is immoral. Their refusal to deal with the issue of priest abuse is downright criminal. Their "above the law" attitude is just sickening. JR
ReplyDeleteI was pretty sure they would take this spineless route, essentially using diplomatic immunity as a shield. But, in all fairness many world leaders are wanted for war crimes or worse. Looks like business as usual for the elite of our world.
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