The United States Supreme Court refused on Monday to consider an appeal by the Vatican for immunity in a paedophilia case. The case, brought in 2002, can now go ahead and the ruling paves the way for Vatican officials and, technically, Pope Benedict himself, to be questioned under oath with regard to the alleged sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests in the United States.
The decision upholds an earlier ruling by the US Ninth Court of Appeals that the case is an exception to the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, under which foreign states can claim immunity to prosecution in the United States. The Obama administration had backed the Vatican when asked for its opinion by the Supreme Court.
The plaintiff in the case is identified only as John V Doe and he alleges that, during the 1960s, he was sexually abused several times in Portland [Oregon] by Father Andrew Ronan, a priest who died in 1992. Father Ronan also allegedly abused seminarians in Ireland and minors in Chicago prior to moving to Portland. In the lawsuit the Vatican is accused of moving Father Ronan from Ireland to Chicago and then to Portland despite being aware of accusations of paedophilia regarding him at the time.
Six of the Supreme Court judges who ruled on Vatican immunity on Monday are Catholic.
