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Court OKs Vatican Lawsuit
Posted by Tom McFeely
Thursday, March 05, 2009 3:28 PM
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a sexual abuse lawsuit in Oregon against the Vatican can proceed.
It’s the second such ruling in recent months by a U.S. court allowing a sexual-abuse lawsuit to proceed against the Vatican.
The Daily Blog reported here about the first decision by an appeals court in Kentucky, and about why launching suits against the Vatican is enticing to trail lawyers.
The Oregon case involves a plaintiff, identified as “John Doe” who alleges he suffered abuse in Portland at the hands of Father Andrew Ronan. According to this article about the court decision by the AFP news service, the Catholic priest previously had been removed from parishes in Ireland and in the United States after admitting to sexually abusing boys.
According to this statement issued in 2002 by the Archdiocese of Portland, Ronan was the subject of “swift and decisive” action when allegations of abuse were made against him. Judicial proceedings were instituted against him under canon law and he was laicized in March 1966 and left Portland shortly afterward, according to the archdiocesan statement.
When the case came to court last year in Oregon, the AFP news service reports, the Vatican claimed immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. But the Ninth Circuit Court judges held that the plaintiff’s cases meets the terms for an exemption from the Immunities Act because the Vatican has “control over the priest in terms of his removal and his transfers, enough control that it can be held legally responsible as the master of the priest.”
For a more detailed discussion of the implications of sexual-abuse lawsuits against the Vatican, go here to read an article about the Kentucky case that was published at the start of this year by the Register.
| Filed under lawsuits, sexual abuse, vatican
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