Vatican Asked to Cooperate in Serving Pope Court Papers

Decades old sexual abuse allegations against a Wisconsin priest are at the crux of a case for a federal U.S. judge and the first step - asking the Vatican to cooperate in serving the pope and two other Vatican officials with court papers - has been taken.  As reported by the Associated Press from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Vatican is not obligated to comply with the request.

The lawsuit alleges that Vatican officials conspired to keep sexual abuse claims targeting Rev. Lawrence Murphy quiet.

In the past when asked to comply the Vatican created time-consuming and expensive requests; such as insisting that all court papers be translated into Latin.

The attorney representing the plaintiff, Mike Finnegan, said that he is not counting on the Vatican's compliance, "Based on what they've done in other cases, I don't expect them to do the right thing.  I expect more delay and obstruction."

The Vatican's U.S.-based attorney, Jeffrey Lena, couldn't offer a comment as to how the Vatican might respond and said that he hadn't seen the request.

Defendants named in the lawsuit are current Pope Benedict XVI Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the secretary of state that served before him, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

The suit claims that all three men knew about the sexual abuse allegations lodged against Murphy - and called off  his internal punishment - while he was at a Milwaukee school for the deaf.  Murphy was accused of sexual abusing approximately 200 boys between 1950 and 1974.  Murphy died in 1998.

Lena said that this case is all about publicity as it brings up a cold case that U.S. courts had already rejected.  He claims that it refers to abuse from the 1970s - 20 years before the Holy See had learned of the priest's actions, "This is a minor procedural step by plaintiff's lawyers in a meritless lawsuit."

The Vatican has contended that according to canon law, and the structure of the Roman Catholic Church, it's the bishops that are held accountable for disciplining abusive priests.

A letter written by Milwaukee Rembert Weakland to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith - an office run by Cardinal Ratzinger from 1981 to 2005 - was a complaint about Murphy.

Weakland was advised to move forward with a canonical trial in 1997 against Murphy until they received a letter from Murphy himself that asked for a different course.  The letter allegedly cited Murphy's advanced age, poor health and a lack of more allegations.

At that the Wisconsin bishops ordered a halt to the proceedings.  Before Murphy may have been defrocked as a result of the canonical trial, he died. 

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa signed the order requesting Vatican cooperation on September 24 that read, "The court requests the assistance described herein as necessary in the interests of justice."

The statement was later released by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and is considered a "hopeful" sign, by spokesperson Arthur Budzinski, that the pope might testify. 

A case in Kentucky, that also sought cooperation from the Vatican, was dismissed last month, and a similar case is ongoing in Oregon.

If you, or someone close to you, has ever been subjected to a priest's abuse, click here to locate an attorney that can help.