Vatican seeks intervention from State Dept.

Vatican asks Condoleezza Rice to help stop a sex abuse lawsuit

By John L. Allen Jr.
NCR Rome Correspondent

Alongside predictable exchanges on Iraq, the Middle East and religious liberty, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in her Feb. 8 visit to the Vatican also received an unexpected request -- to intervene in a U.S. lawsuit naming the Holy See as the defendant in a sex abuse case.

Church sources told NCR that Rice was asked by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, whether the United States government could stop a class-action lawsuit currently before a United States District Court in Louisville, Ky., that seeks to hold the Vatican financially responsible for the sexual abuse of minors.

Sources told NCR that Rice explained that under American law, foreign states are required to assert claims of sovereign immunity themselves before U.S. courts.

Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls, asked by NCR for comment, responded March 2: "It's obvious and reasonable that the Holy See would present its positions as a sovereign entity to the American State Department, and recall the immunity for its acts that international law anticipates."

It's not the first time, according to observers, that the Vatican has asked the State Department for help on a legal matter.

http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn030305.htm

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To call the state department directly to lodge a complaint, please call this number: 202-647-5291. To register complaints with Condoleeza Rice go through the Department of Human Rights and Labor — http://www.state.gov/g/drl/. MICHAEL G. KOZAK is the Acting Director. See his biography at: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/38603.htm


The fax number to lodge a complaint with Condoleeza Rice via Micheal G. Kozak at the Department of Human Rights and Labor is, 202-647-2283.

by me.

Bush has screwed his supporters every time and he will do the Pope because his ultimate goal is to destroy the Catholic Church!!!

:nuke:

women who , in their sanctimonious judgement, need to be harrassed, humiliated and shamed, in their righteous opinion, and consequently punished for their sin.

And now we see the true nature of the Vatican, in spite of the old, teddy bear like, nice man who wears a white gown and pink/white satin shoes, waving at a crowd of admirerers praying on their knees for the god to prevent his death.

We'll help with the catholic vote...abortion anyone. Help us with the lawsuits. I despise the powerbrokers whether religious or political.

bushco + popeco =?
shudder.

First the hierarchy does what it can to undermine John Kerry and then asks for financial relief from scandalous and destructive behavior that it condoned . It is testament to the power of Jesus's ideas that these clowns can't obscure the timeliness of his message . As I told a young cousin of mine : I love my religion it's the Church that I am not fond of .
Had the bishops spent 1/4th of the time they expended in keeping Kerry from receiving Communion on separating pedophile priests from altar boys , they would not have to seek favors from an administration that wages war on innocents abroad and takes bread out of the poor at home .

They like to play it both ways, don't they?
A religion one day and a sovereign entity the next.
I would dearly love to see a time when these folks do not have political power.
I'm sick of hearing about how we have to respect them.
Respect is earned, and these sob's have done little to earn my respect
as a foreign entity or as representatives of their religion.

line!

SNAP Press Statement

Statement Regarding Vatican Asking U.S. Sec. of State to Block Lawsuit
Thursday, March 3, 2005

Statement by Mary Grant of Long Beach
SNAP Regional Director (626) 419-2930 cell

For more information:
Mary Grant of Long Beach, SNAP Regional Director (626) 419-2930 cell

There are three key players in this controversy today.
Everyone knows who Condoleezza Rice is.
Everyone knows who Cardinal Roger Mahony is.

Not everyone knows the third party - Cardinal Angelo Sodano of Rome. He is a close, trusted advisor to the Pope, a top veteran church official who serves now as the Vatican Secretary of State.

Last month, Sodano asked Condoleezza Rice to block a class action lawsuit brought by clergy sex abuse victims that includes the Vatican as a defendant.

We know this because of an exclusive story today by the top American journalist in Rome, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter.

http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn030305.htm

It is now clear that top Vatican officials doing what American bishops often do - trying to use legal technicalities and political connections to evade justice and accountability in sex crimes cases.

We feel that the Vatican effort to thwart this lawsuit is designed to protect bishops' secrets, reputations and assets, not protect innocent children and vulnerable adults.

We strongly urges all Catholic leaders, from Cardinal Sodano on down, to stop trying to interfere with the American judicial system and obstruct clergy sex abuse victims who feel compelled to seek justice and healing in court.

We strongly urge Cardinal Mahony, as the top church prelate in America, to publicly speak out against this move. He heads the largest archdiocese in America. He is percieved by many to be the unquestioned leader of America's bishops. He must take a stand.

In truth, there is virtually no difference between what Cardinal Sodano in Rome is trying and what Cardinal Mahony in Los Angeles is trying. Both are using every conceivable roadblock to keep victims from getting the closure, healing and justice they need and deserve. Both fear the American justice system and American juries. Above all else, both obviously fear more hidden truths surfacing, truths about how bishops covered up the rape of children.


It seems and feels worse, however, when these efforts to obstruct closure, healing and justice go to the very top of the Vatican and the very top of the American government. Mahony must speak out against this.


Despite years of horrific sex crimes against children and cover ups of those crimes by bishops, we in SNAP feel that little has changed in the American church hierarchy. And apparently nothing has changed in the Vatican church hierarchy.


Therefore, we welcome more aggressive and innovative strategies to try and prod church officials toward real reform and to protect children who are still at risk.

some of the heirarchy who come up with pompous decisions, there are thousands and thousands of moral and dedicated priests and nuns who love humanity and work and care for it.

however, they have much in common with may atheists or agnostics or those of other or of no faith, that also work hard and who also love humanity.

In the Catholic Catechism, somewhere hidden in it's last pages, is a condemnation of atheists.

We are lacking.

I love humanity myself, I love nature and will do anything I can to protect it and will do anything that I am capable of to help humans and to protect them and to prevent them from harm. I have spent a lifetime helping the sick to heal.

I have no religion. Thank god.

How about some freedom and democracy in the Vatican? Free the Vatican women!

If Enron, or Key Ley contacted the justice dept. and asked that they stop the class action suite, that would be illegal...I think.

How is it possible for this to be legal only because they are a religious group?