By David Knowles
True/Slant
March 30, 2010
http://trueslant.com/davidknowles/2010/03/30/the-vaticans-3-reasons-the-pope-cant-be-deposed/
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The inevitable has happened. A lawsuit in Kentucky is attempting to have Pope Benedict XVI deposed in a criminal proceeding looking into his role in the ever-widening pedophilia scandal currently rocking the Catholic Church.
The case was filed in 2004 in Kentucky by three men who claim they were abused by priests and claim negligence by the Vatican. Their attorney, William McMurry, is seeking class-action status for the case, saying there are thousands of victims across the country.
There are plenty of prosecuting attorneys out there who would love to have the chance to question the Pope, especially in the wake of revelations that as the archbishop of Munich, Ratzinger may have been well aware of complaints made against pedophile priests.
The Vatican knows that if this scandal is allowed to play out in courtrooms across the globe, they’re sunk. So, they’ve prepared a three-pronged line of defense to keep the higher ups far away from gavels, witnesses, lawyers and judges.
1. The Pope is a head of state, and therefore has immunity from being deposed.
2. The American bishops who over saw the pedophile priests in places like Wisconsin, Boston, Kentucky, Los Angeles, Phoenix and elsewhere weren’t technically employees of the Vatican, so their behavior can’t be laid at the feet of Ratzinger.
3. A controversial 1962 Vatican document called “Crimen Sollicitationis” that detailed the protocol for bishops learning about cases of pedophile priests did not specifically forbid the bishops from notifying police.
Will the Pope be forced to testify? Unlikely. But this is one further step in what is a losing PR battle for the Vatican. The more this becomes about legal proceedings, the less comfortable the Pope should feel.
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