May 26, 2010 / 22:40 pm
Two canon lawyers have weighed in on an attempt to sue the Vatican for sexual abuse by a priest, saying it misconstrues the nature of the Catholic Church and the relationship between the Pope and other Catholic bishops. It is based on the misperception of the Church as a “monolithic” structure, one said.
The lawsuit, named Doe v. Holy See, was filed in 2002 on behalf of a man who claimed he was sexually abused by a priest in Oregon in the mid-1960s. The priest had previously been accused of abusing children in Ireland and Chicago.
The Holy See was one of the defendants named in the suit, which argues that the Vatican should be held accountable for moving the priest to Oregon where he conceivably could have continued to abuse.
One of the claims of the lawsuit is that the relationship of a Catholic bishop to the Pope is like that of an agent or employee to an employer. If upheld in court, the claim would help invalidate the Holy See’s claim to sovereign immunity in the case.