Pope Named in Lawsuit by Clergy Sex Abuse Victim

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A victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest has filed a lawsuit against the Vatican, naming Pope Benedict as a defendant.

According to CNN, this the first legal case in the worldwide clergy abuse scandal to target the pontiff.

Terry Kohut says he was sexually molested and assaulted by the headmaster and priest of St. John's School for the Deaf, in Milwaukee. "Kohut was not alone," CNN reports. "From 1950 to 1974 the headmaster of St. Johns, Father Lawrence C. Murphy, raped and molested as many as 200 deaf boys, according to court and church documents."

The suit alleges that the pope, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was culpable in his role as head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which investigated charges of sexual abuse by priests. And though church records show the abuse by Father Murphy was brought to the attention of Ratzinger years ago, a church trial against the headmaster was stopped and he was allowed to remain a priest. Murphy died in 1998 as priest in good standing.

The Vatican's "policy of secrecy" in abuse cases, and its "directives to conceal the sexual abuse of children" by priests, the lawsuit says, helped bring about the abuse of Kohut and others by Father Murphy.

Kohut, now 60, decribes the abuse in an interview that will be broadcast this weekend on CNN. Kohut spoke with his hands and through an interpreter in the interview, CNN says.

The Vatican issued a statement earlier this year acknowledging that victims "suffered terribly" from what Murphy did but that Vatican actions were taken "in light of the facts that Father Murphy was elderly and in very poor health, and that he was living in seclusion and no allegations of abuse had been reported in over 20 years."

More recently, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, a Vatican's prosecutor, told CNN, "If the case would have been decided today with the knowledge we have, the judgment may have been different." As for the pope's culpability, he said that Ratzinger was not at fault "because it is a judgment that took care of reparation, of scandal in the sense that it expected a public admission of guilt and it also ensured that Father Murphy be kept in a ministry which did not constitute a risk."

Filed Under: Catholic Scandal

Tagged: dailyguidance, Pope Benedict XVI

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schndj

Actually, this one lands on the doorstep of Rembert Weakland, formerly the Archbishop responsible for this area. Maybe the lawyer for this young man, who has undeniably suffered, would be better off to go after the proceeds of Weakland's new book wherein he justifies his own homosexuality and subsequent hush money paid to one of his "victims"....follow the money counseler...partucularly where you have a chance of actually winning, unless of course, this is just about sensationalism....nah!

September 23 2010 at 11:54 AM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down Reply