BTW, before you promote something wrong: I'm a catholic.
Why is the Christian church infested with sex criminals?
Here's one of hundreds of recent news reports on the subject:
Vatican loses bid for immunity in Oregon clergy abuse lawsuit
By Jaime Jansen
JURIST
Thursday, June 8, 2006
A federal judge in Oregon allowed a sexual abuse
lawsuit against the Catholic Church to move forward
Wednesday, rejecting the Vatican's bid to dismiss the
suit for lack of jurisdiction. The ruling allows a
Seattle-area man to continue with his claim [complaint,
PDF] that the Holy See [official website] is liable for
transferring the Rev. Andrew Ronan from Ireland to
Chicago to Portland, even though the church knew Ronan
had a history of sexual abuse. The lawsuit, filed in 2002
[AP report] in the US District Court for the District of
Oregon [official website], alleges the Vatican, the
Archdiocese of Portland and the archbishop of Chicago
conspired to protect Ronan by transferring him from city
to city. District Judge Michael Mosman [official profile]
ruled that Ronan was an employee of the Vatican under
Oregon law and noted that there are exceptions to the
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act [text], which typically
grants the Vatican and other foreign states immunity in
US courts. The 1976 act does not shield states when
engaged in commercial or certain harmful activities in
the United States. The judge added that the Holy See
offered no evidence contradicting its involvement in
transferring Ronan to protect him.
No one has successfully sued the Vatican over allegations
of sexual abuse by priests [JURIST news archive],
although individual dioceses have been sued and agreed to
large settlements [JURIST report]. Last year, a US
district judge in Kentucky ruled [JURIST report] that the
Holy See is a foreign state subject to immunity
protections under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
rejecting the plaintiff's argument that the Vatican is an
international religious organization. A federal judge in
Texas later ruled that Pope Benedict XVI [official
profile] enjoys immunity as the head of the Vatican
[JURIST report], dismissing a civil suit alleging that
the pontiff conspired to conceal clergy sex abuse. AP has
more.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060608/D8I3O6D00.html
More at:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/06/vatican-loses-bid-for-immunity-in.php
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/a5ljc
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti