Abuse victim: Pope’s legal defence ‘perverse’

ONE of Ireland’s best-known clerical abuse victims has described Pope Benedict’s planned legal defence against a US lawsuit as “perverse”.

Colm O’Gorman, who tried unsuccessfully in 2003 to sue the Pope following his own abuse by Fr Sean Fortune in Ferns, said the Church has “configured itself so they are outside the law”.

Court documents obtained by the Associated Press show Vatican lawyers plan to argue the Pope has immunity as head of state and bishops who oversaw abusive priests were not employees of the Vatican.