Vatican crafts abuse defence in bid to shield Pope

The Vatican, dragged deeper than ever into the clergy sex abuse scandal, is launching a legal defence that it hopes will shield the Pope from a US lawsuit seeking to have him answer questions under oath.

Court documents show Vatican lawyers plan to argue that the Pope has immunity as head of state, that American bishops who oversaw abusive priests were not employees of the Vatican, and that a 1962 document is not the “smoking gun” that provides proof of a cover-up.