Abuse suit against Vatican can proceed

PORTLAND, Ore. – A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a sex abuse lawsuit against the Vatican can move forward with its claim that the Holy See bears responsibility for a priest who was transferred from city to city even though he was known to be a molester.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman said in his decision that there are exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, under which the Vatican is typically immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.

Rejecting the church’s bid to dismiss the case, Mosman ruled that there was enough of a connection between the Vatican and the priest, who died in 1970, for him to be considered a Vatican employee under Oregon law.

No one has ever successfully sued the Vatican over molestation by Roman Catholic priests, and some legal experts have dismissed such lawsuits as publicity stunts.

Attorney Jeffrey Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., who frequently represents abuse victims and who filed the lawsuit, called Mosman’s ruling a “titanic legal victory.”

Anderson said it was “the first time any court has held or acknowledged there is a basis in law to hold the Holy See accountable for cover-up and concealment and this international movement of predatory priests.”

But Jeffrey Lena, the Holy See’s attorney in the lawsuit, noted the judge rejected two other arguments for granting U.S. courts jurisdiction over the Vatican. “This decision does not establish jurisdiction over the Holy See, let alone establish liability,” Lena said.

He declined to say whether the Vatican would appeal.

The lawsuit filed in 2002 by a Seattle-area man claims the Vatican, the Archdiocese of Portland and the archbishop of Chicago conspired to protect the Rev. Andrew Ronan by moving him from Ireland to Chicago to Portland despite a history of abuse.