Federal Appeals Court Rules Abuse Case Against Vatican Can Go Forward
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Federal appeals court rules abuse case against Vatican can go forward WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court ruled Nov. 24 that a lawsuit can move forward against the Vatican involving three men who claimed to have been sexually abused when they were children by priests in the Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky. However, the lead counsel to the Vatican in this case said the ruling handed down by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also presents significant challenges for the attorneys representing the three men in proving the Vatican is liable for damages. Louisville attorney William F. McMurry has brought what is believed to be the first clergy sexual abuse suit that names the Vatican as the sole defendant. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, claiming a 1962 directive from the Vatican instructed church officials in Louisville to remain silent about sex abuse complaints against clergy in the archdiocese. The document became public in 2003 and the lawsuit asserts that it makes the Vatican responsible for crimes committed by clergy whose misdeeds were covered up because of the instruction. Mr. McMurry was not available to comment to Catholic News Service Nov. 25, but told The Associated Press Nov. 24 that this ruling was a significant step forward in his case. “We’re finally going to get to the root of the problem.” Mr. McMurry also represented 243 sex abuse victims who reached a settlement with the Louisville Archdiocese for $25.3 million in 2003. Jeffrey S. Lena, the Berkeley, Calif., attorney representing the Holy See in this case, said the ruling also was in many respects a good decision for the Vatican. “The plaintiffs can say they have prevailed, because they have survived to litigate another day,” Lena told CNS Nov. 25. “But the basis for their jurisdictional claims is significantly narrowed and they lost all of their constitutional challenges that were on appeal.” The appeals court upheld a 2007 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge John G. Heyburn II that allows the three men to pursue a claim that church officials should have issued warnings that members of the clergy had been accused of sexual abuse. But the court dismissed the portion of the lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, which grants immunity to foreign nations from nearly all civil lawsuits. The lawsuit claimed the Holy See was a religious institution that was separate from the Vatican City State, which is recognized by the U.S. as a country. The ruling holds that the Vatican is a country and not a separate religious institution. “Because, what they claimed happened in Kentucky, now the plaintiff has to find a way to place the Holy See in the U.S.,” Lena said. The argument may be made that U.S. bishops who should have sounded the alarm about sexual abuse allegations are employees of the Vatican, but the defense could maintain they are employees of the Archdiocese of Louisville. When he rendered his 2007 ruling, Heyburn acknowledged that whether the Holy See qualifies as an employer of U.S. clergy for the purposes of the case had not yet been fully tested. “In (the Nov. 24) ruling the court adopted the ruling of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, that says sexual abuse is outside of the scope of the employment of the priest,” Lena said. “Now that becomes the law of the case. When a priest is committing sexual abuse, it’s outside of the scope of employment. That makes it difficult to move the case forward. The basis of the case is narrowed.” Cecilia Price, spokeswoman for the Louisville Archdiocese, told CNS Nov. 25 the archdiocese had nothing more to add to what Lena had already said about the ruling. McMurry told AP he suspected this case could end up being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, but Lena told CNS it was premature for him to make such a prediction. Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi told CNS in Rome Nov. 25 that he did not expect Vatican officials to have any comment on the ruling. Study: Overseas aid needed to keep poor from falling further behind WASHINGTON – Officials from a variety of nongovernmental organizations have urged the United States to continue overseas development assistance despite the current global financial crisis. One official at a Nov. 24 press conference in Washington said relieving hunger in poor nations could be seen as a national security issue. At the press conference, marking the release of the 19th annual hunger report by Bread for the World, speakers noted that 100 million more people went hungry earlier this year because of fuel and food price spikes, coupled with the growing of crops for fuel rather than for food – and an additional 100 million have gone hungry since the financial crisis started in September. “Investing in food production in Africa is a security issue,” declared Peter McPherson, a former U.S. Agency for International Development director, during the press conference. “Food production, in my mind, is a security issue.” “We started sensing that something was seriously wrong” a little over a year ago, said Ken Hackett, head of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency. One sign was when sisters who were Missionaries of Charity would come to CRS outposts. “When the Missionaries of Charity come to your door, they don’t leave,” Mr. Hackett said during the press conference. Their presence was an indication, he added, that “the poorest of the poor could no longer feed themselves.” Another sign came during his visit to CRS workers in Haiti. “When you stand up before 200 of your workers in Haiti, and you give your speech and you thank them for all the good work that they’re doing, and the first hand that goes up says, ‘When are we going to get a salary adjustment?’ you know something’s wrong,” Mr. Hackett said. “It’s even affecting our own people on the ground.” Concern for the poor and the vulnerable “must be at the foundation of any assistance,” he added. Overseas development assistance, as currently constituted, “is not responsive in any way to the needs of the poor,” according to Hackett. A chart distributed at the press conference showed 50 foreign assistance objectives, 51 U.S. governmental foreign assistance organizations – Cabinet departments among them – and 48 presidential initiatives, pieces of legislation and strategy papers. McPherson called for an overhaul of the bureaucracy; the Obama transition team has been approached with the idea of a Cabinet-level Department of Global Assistance. “There’s nothing like money to dictate where the control is,” Mr. McPherson said. Foreign assistance “is not addressing the root causes of poverty,” Hackett said. It must integrate food aid and development aid, he added. “It’s imperative that the United States supply, even in tough times, adequate assistance. The U.S. role in development aid has slipped over the past 20 years “because we’re now into immediate emergency relief,” Mr. McPherson said. Joy Phumaphi, the World Bank’s vice president for human development, said the World Bank was prepared to give $6 billion in farm aid to developing countries, but added that the figure was 10 percent of what was needed worldwide. The executive summary of the Bread for the World hunger report showed the inequality of aid and trade. “In 2006, Bangladesh received $80 million in U.S. assistance, while the United States collected $487 million in tariffs on imports from Bangladesh,” it said. “The United States has been working to increase the competitiveness of Bangladeshi businesses, yet U.S. tariffs make exports from Bangladesh less competitive.” Catholic co-sponsors of the Bread for the World hunger report included the Bon Secours Health System; Catholic Charities USA; the Catholic Health Association; SC Ministry Foundation, which is an agency of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati; and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, Calif. The full report can be seen at www.hungerreport.org. Returning teacher finds new challenges I recently returned to teaching high school in the Archdiocese of Baltimore after an absence of more than 30 years. The things that I have learned (and in some cases relearned) are as numerous as the challenges a teacher faces today. I began my professional career teaching English and language arts at Archbishop Spalding High School – one of the stalwart educational institutions in our archdiocese. After 32 years as a copy editor and sometimes writer, primarily in the sports department at The Baltimore Sun, I returned last August to teaching English and journalism at Cardinal Gibbons School – one of the stalwart educational institutions in our archdiocese. I guess what I have learned in my short time back teaching shouldn’t surprise me. As in all walks of life, some things change; others remain constant. Many of the priorities have a familiar ring to them. Reading comprehension and critical writing skills could not be emphasized enough in the 1970s. Nor can they be emphasized enough today. I began teaching thinking that I could teach Homer, Virgil and Dante the way that I had been taught as a student at Cardinal Gibbons a decade earlier, but I soon returned to graduate school so that I could acquire the skills to address my students’ more basic writing and reading needs. It is just as vital, perhaps more so, to address those basic writing and reading needs today. Other things, including names, have changed. Martin Spalding is now Archbishop Spalding; 32 years ago, it was Cardinal Gibbons High School. Names and faces may change.