U.S Judge Asks Vatican To Serve Court Papers to Pope

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MILWAUKEE – A federal U.S. judge is asking the Vatican to cooperate in serving the pope and two other top officials with court papers that stem from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse by a priest in Wisconsin.

The request is an incremental step in a lawsuit that accuses the officials of conspiring to keep the allegations against the Milwaukee priest quiet. The Vatican is not obliged to comply with the request.

When faced with similar requests the Vatican has made service difficult, time-consuming and expensive by insisting, for example, that documentation be translated into Latin, one of the Vatican's official languages.

Mike Finnegan, the attorney representing the Chicago-based plaintiff, said Friday he's not holding out hope that the Vatican reverses course and begins to cooperate now.

"Based on what they've done in other cases, I don't expect them to do the right thing," he said. "I expect more delay and obstruction."

Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's U.S.-based attorney, said he hadn't seen the court request and couldn't comment on whether the Vatican would comply with it.

The lawsuit, filed in April in U.S. federal court, names as defendants Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI; Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, and his predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

It claims the three men knew about allegations of sexual abuse at a Milwaukee-area school for the deaf, and called off internal punishment of the accused priest. The Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who died in 1998, was accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the school from 1950 to 1974.

Lena has called the lawsuit a publicity stunt and said it rehashes theories already rejected by U.S. courts.

"This is a minor procedural step by plaintiff's lawyers in a meritless lawsuit," he said. He added that it refers to abuse that occurred in the 1970s, which he said was more than 20 years before the Holy See first learned of the priest's actions.

The Vatican has argued that it isn't liable for clerical sex-abuse cases because according to canon law and the structure of the Catholic Church, bishops — not Rome — are responsible for disciplining pedophile priests.

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JMC Ministries Response

If they are going to do this then shouldn't they be sending out court papers to the leaders of the Muslim world when there people have gone on trial for killing thousands? It just doesn't make since. It seems they are trying to put the entire Catholic Faith on trial. No matter what religion you may be, there will always be people who do evil things. Satan gets a hold of peoples minds and put horrible evil thoughts that he eats a way at them with until they cave in and act upon those temptations.

Do we think the Pope is personally connected with this, no we don't. Just as other leaders in the Christian Faith are not connected with what this Pastor In Florida who is being accused of sexual abuse and is on Trial for. People make their own choices in life.

We are sure the Pope knows what is going on and is informed of this trial but what good is it to try and place him on the stand other than to ask him if he knew anything about this and what did he try to do to rectify the situation.

It is horrible that Children are being abused by people of the Christian Faith, and we must pray for them that they turn from this evil behavior that destroys lives and scars people from even wanting to be a Christian and go to church. These kind of things are just giving people more and more excuses not to go to church. We must pray for the pastors, bishops, priests and all that are in leadership in churches. That they be the example of Christ and share His love.

We must also pray for the victims of the abusers. That they be comforted by the Holy Spirit and that God bring healing to their bodies, hearts and souls.

There has been too many of these kinds of stories popping up around the Country and World. As Christians and people of Faith we must watch and listen and pay attention in our churches if we think abuse is going on, say something before it get's to this level. Abuse needs to stop and only through the Love of Christ and his guidance can there really be an end to it.