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.

The Holy See is trying to fend off the first US case to reach the stage of determining whether victims have a claim against the Vatican for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police about priests who molested children. The American case was filed in 2004 in Kentucky by three men who claim they were abused by priests and claim negligence by the Vatican. Their lawyer, William McMurry, is seeking class-action status for the case.

But the Vatican is seeking to dismiss the suit before Benedict XVI can be questioned or documents subpoenaed.