The Vatican hit a snag in their attempts to claim sovereign immunity from suit when the Supreme Court of the United States voted to not hear a case seeking to dismiss an Oregon lawsuit aimed at the Vatican itself. The suit from a victim of molestation has taken aim at the Vatican claiming that Reverend Andrew Roman repeatedly molested him in the 1960’s. The case, John V. Doe v. Holy See, was filed in 2002 and claimed that Reverend Roman was an employee of the Vatican. The plaintiff, known only as John V. Doe, maintains that the Vatican conspired with the Archdiocese of Portland to shield Reverend Roman from prosecution by moving him first from Ireland then to Chicago and finally to Portland.
A Federal court rejected the argument from the Vatican that they are immune from this suit because of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed up that this was an exception to the FSIA. By rejecting the appeal, the Supreme Court has, in effect, sided with the Appeals Court. This means that the suit will now go forward.
Reverend Roman had a long history of abusing children. He began doing so in the 1950’s while a priest in the Archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland. He then was transferred to Chicago where he admitted to molesting three boys at St. Philip’s High School, and continued to molest when he was moved to St. Albert’s Church in Portland, Oregon. Another lawsuit moving through the courts also maintains that the Vatican is responsible for the actions of the bishops who covered up these crimes.
The Supreme Court is majority Catholic. Currently, there are six Catholic jurists, two Jewish jurists, and one Protestant. Should Elena Kagan be confirmed, it will then be Six Catholic and three Jewish.
(Thanx Michael
...and good news indeed!)
