UNITED STATES
Bloomberg
By Bob Drummond – Mar 19, 2012
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate a lawsuit claiming the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis was negligent by employing a pedophile as a priest, a job that put him in contact with children.
The justices today rejected an appeal challenging a Missouri court’s ruling that the Constitution’s religious- freedom protections shield churches from lawsuits questioning practices for employing and supervising the clergy.
The Catholic Church has faced hundreds of lawsuits, and paid millions of dollars in damages and settlements, in claims from people who alleged sexual abuse by priests over a period of decades. At least eight Catholic dioceses have declared bankruptcy since 2004 in connection with damage claims, and Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 expressed “deep sorrow” for child abuse within the church.
While most state and federal courts to consider the issue have permitted suits against the church in connection with misconduct by its clergy, state courts in Missouri, Utah and Wisconsin have said the First Amendment bars claims related to the employment or supervision of priests, according to the appeal at the high court.
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