Three Americans who allege they were sexually abused by priests are dropping their landmark lawsuit against the Vatican, according to The Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703435104575421443951992242.html%3
The attorney for the trio last Monday asked U.S. District Court Judge John Heyburn to dismiss the landmark lawsuit, filed in federal court in Louisville, Ky., in 2004. The lawyer, William McMurray, basically said his clients wouldn’t be able to hold the Holy See in Rome responsible for the priest sex abuse scandal in the United States, because of the “impossible burden” of proof required by U.S. courts.
A Illinois man has a similar federal suit pending that alleges he was abused by the Rev. Lawrence Murphy at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Francis, outside Milwaukee. Before he died in 1998 Father Murphy confessed to molesting 200 school boys from 1952 to 1974.
There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of lawsuits filed by people who allege that they were molested by Catholic priests. But those suits usually name a priest or diocese as defendants, not the Vatican.
The federal litigation involving Father Murphy names Pope Benedict XVI, the Holy See and several top Vatican officials.
Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court let a lower court ruling, which said that suits can be filed against the Vatican on certain grounds, stand. That case stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a man in Portland, Ore., who alleged he was molested when he was a teenager by a priest.
