Pressure mounts to test papal immunity

PROTESTS are growing against Pope Benedict XVI’s planned trip to Britain, where some lawyers question whether the Vatican’s implicit statehood status should shield the Pope from prosecution over sex crimes by paedophile priests.

More than 10,000 people have signed a petition on Downing Street’s website against the Pope’s four-day visit to England and Scotland in September, which will cost British taxpayers an estimated £15 million (€16.89m).

Although Benedict has not been accused of any crime, senior British lawyers are examining whether the Pope should have immunity as a head of state and whether he could be prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction for an alleged systematic cover-up of sexual abuses by priests.