‘Vatican not employer of molester priests’

The Vatican won a major victory yesterday in an Oregon federal courtroom, where a judge ruled that the Holy See is not the employer of molester priests.

The decision by US District Court Judge Michael Mosman ends a six-year question in the decade-old case and could shield the Vatican from possible monetary damages.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2002 by a Seattle-area man, who said the Rev Andrew Ronan repeatedly molested him in the late 1960s. The plaintiffs tried to show that priests are employees of the Vatican, making it liable for their actions.