A man who says he was molested by a priest at a school for the deaf in suburban Milwaukee Thursday filed a federal suit against those he holds responsible: Pope Benedict XVI, the Holy See and several top Vatican officials. http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/pope-sued-in-milwaukee-clergy-sex-abuse-case/19450730
The lawsuit only identifies the plaintiff as Illinois resident John Doe 16, who asserts that he was molested by the Rev. Lawrence Murphy at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, outside Milwaukee. Father Murphy, who died in 1998, admitted to abusing 200 boys at the school from 1952 to 1974.
The lawsuit charges that the Vatican, and the Pope himself, knew that Father Murphy was a pedophile but didn’t act to stop him or defrock him. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages.
There have been many lawsuits filed against Roman Catholic dioceses across the nation by those who allege that they were sexually assaulted by pedophile priests. But it’s unusual for the Pope himself to be named as a defendant, as in Thursday’s action.
The Survivors Network For Those Abused By Priests told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that there two other cases pending against the Vatican that have been filed by men who say they were molested by priests. http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/91801904.html
Appeals courts have allowed suits in Oregon and Kentucky to go forward, but the Vatican has requested that the U.S. Supreme Court rule on the Oregon case, according to the Journal Sentinel.
The Vatican’s position is that the Pope is protected from litigation by sovereign immunity, but victims’ attorney maintain that the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act permits foreign countries and their representatives to be sued in some cases related to commercial or private activity.
The suit against the Pope is also unusual in that it wants the Vatican to be ordered to release secret files that have the names of pedophile priests.
Father Murphy’s case made headlines when The New York Times broke a story that alleged that the Pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the Vatican, knew about the allegations against Murphy but stopped proceedings to have him defrocked.
The Times wrote Thursday that documents released with the suit in Milwaukee show that the Vatican was told earlier than previously thought about the allegations against Father Murphy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/us/23priest.html?ref=us
The Pope could have stopped John Doe 16 from being a victim, according to the suit.
“Had plaintiff or his family known what the defendant Holy See knew – that Lawrence Murphy was a suspected child molester and a danger to children before plaintiff was first molested by Murphy, plaintiff would not have been sexually molested,” the suit says.
And here’s a fine touch of irony: Father Murphy first approached the plaintiff about having sex while in a confessional booth.
