Pope dismissed from lawsuit

[beckers]

Good News! People can not just understand that he is a head of state and the leader of religion.

Beckers

Judge Dismisses Pope From Sex-Abuse Suit

VATICAN CITY — A U.S. judge in Texas dismissed Pope Benedict XVI from a civil lawsuit accusing him of conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by a seminarian, ruling Thursday that the pontiff has immunity as a head of state.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal cited a motion filed by the Justice Department, known as a “Suggestion of Immunity,” in which the government said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be “incompatible with the United States’ foreign policy interests.”…

Daniel Shea, who is counsel to the lead attorney in the case, said Thursday that they were considering an appeal.

“I think it’s a setback for the American people that the administration ever gave the Vatican diplomatic immunity to begin with, and that it’s using that to shield them from the conduct that’s involved in here,” he said.

The pope’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, said the ruling was significant in that Benedict was identified as “head of a foreign state, the Holy See.” Some plaintiffs have sought to identify Benedict as only head of a religious entity.

foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179586,00.html

 

[willy]

Imagine that Our Pope in a courtroom being tried for covering up an “incident”. That day will truly be the day society has gone to the dogs.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

willy:

Imagine that Our Pope in a courtroom being tried for covering up an “incident”. That day will truly be the day society has gone to the dogs.

When did being Pope confer automatic innocence of all wrong-doing of every kind ? If a Pope is guilty of a crime, then he’s guilty - those who govern should be more strictly judged, not less, than those they govern. If in fact he has done thing wrong, then good; but there is absolutely no moral reason why a Pope cannot be accused of wrong-doing, even if he can’t be taken to court. Popes have committed crimes before, just like lesser men - so it’s not all impossible they will do so again.​

If a trial was good for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for his servants; none of us is superior to Him, so none of us should expect to have advantages He did not. ##

 

[cainem]

let’s be honest here gottle, this was not about right or wrong here, but wringing more money freely donated by the faithful for good causes out the church by greedy claimants and their legal teams

 

[SEBASTIANMARTIN]

If this case had been allowed to proceed then the US would have case law supporting the suing of heads of states by individual foriegn citizens. Seems to me that would open up the US presidency to lawsuits. I am sure there are a lot of people wating for the opportunity.

 

[willy]

## When did being Pope confer automatic innocence of all wrong-doing of every kind ? If a Pope is guilty of a crime, then he’s guilty - those who govern should be more strictly judged, not less, than those they govern. If in fact he has done thing wrong, then good; but there is absolutely no moral reason why a Pope cannot be accused of wrong-doing, even if he can’t be taken to court. Popes have committed crimes before, just like lesser men - so it’s not all impossible they will do so again.

If a trial was good for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for his servants; none of us is superior to Him, so none of us should expect to have advantages He did not. ##

I’m sure by your 3000+ posts that you are aware of the term “papal infallability”. therefore any decision he has made or people claim he has made is error free by God’s will whether we understand it or not . So it would only be a waste of time bringing him to court. Now i may have the wrong idea about papal infallability, maybe it only applies to doctrine and canon law , please correct me if im wrong but if im not that I for one believe in papal infallability and trying B16 in court would only be a waste of money and time.

 

[marvin]

cainem:

let’s be honest here gottle, this was not about right or wrong here, but wringing more money freely donated by the faithful for good causes out the church by greedy claimants and their legal teams

You got that right! They’re trying something similar here in PA. The Phila. DA is lobbying to extend the statute of limitations on alleged sex abuse by priests so that people can sue the archdiocese even if the abuse alegedly happened 20 or more years ago.

I didn’t know justice could be measued in dollars.

 

[snoopy]

marvin:

You got that right! They’re trying something similar here in PA. The Phila. DA is lobbying to extend the statute of limitations on alleged sex abuse by priests so that people can sue the archdiocese even if the abuse alegedly happened 20 or more years ago.

I didn’t know justice could be measued in dollars.

Justice is measured by putting predators behind bars. Rebuilding lives is measured in dollars. Dollars are needed for therapy, education and maybe some time off to get your life together again. How much? I don’t know, its all relative. Also, there is no statute of limitations on murder. If your child was murdered 20 years ago, you could still persue the case. Rape of a child should not be any different. I am curious, just what would you do for the victims. Just how would you compensate them?

 

[snoopy]

cainem:

let’s be honest here gottle, this was not about right or wrong here, but wringing more money freely donated by the faithful for good causes out the church by greedy claimants and their legal teams

How do you think the victims should be compensated, if at all?

 

[willy]

snoopy:

Justice is measured by putting predators behind bars. Rebuilding lives is measured in dollars. Dollars are needed for therapy, education and maybe some time off to get your life together again. How much? I don’t know, its all relative. Also, there is no statute of limitations on murder. If your child was murdered 20 years ago, you could still persue the case. Rape of a child should not be any different. I am curious, just what would you do for the victims. Just how would you compensate them?

These victims were fine up untill now .

 

[marvin]

snoopy:

Justice is measured by putting predators behind bars. Rebuilding lives is measured in dollars. Dollars are needed for therapy, education and maybe some time off to get your life together again. How much? I don’t know, its all relative. Also, there is no statute of limitations on murder. If your child was murdered 20 years ago, you could still persue the case. Rape of a child should not be any different. I am curious, just what would you do for the victims. Just how would you compensate them?

Therapy? Education? Time off? Rebuilding lives? Please. Extending a statute in order to get money for adult victims isn’t going to help anything. All this is going to do is open the door for con men and people with an ax to grind to bankrupt the church. The damage has been done. No amount of money is going to make it right.

The lesson here is this. If someone hurts your child, and I don’t care who it is, you as the parent make it your life’s mission to prosecute the person to the fullest extent of the law. And I say this as a parent. If anyone hurts my children, be it the Archbishop himself, he will pay.

So as far as compensation goes, criminal prosecution. Money doesn’t mean squat.

And don’t equate murder with rape.

 

[cainem]

i suggest that if therapy is actually needed then the church pay for it, i was also abused as a child not by a priest but a close family friend, i am well adjusted thank you very much not some quivering fruit cake, bad things in life happen, chin up and get on with life if i can do it anyone can, we can also pray for the victims,

 

[snoopy]

willy:

These victims were fine up untill now .

Yeah right.

 

[snoopy]

marvin:

Therapy? Education? Time off? Rebuilding lives? Please. Extending a statute in order to get money for adult victims isn’t going to help anything. All this is going to do is open the door for con men and people with an ax to grind to bankrupt the church. The damage has been done. No amount of money is going to make it right.

The lesson here is this. If someone hurts your child, and I don’t care who it is, you as the parent make it your life’s mission to prosecute the person to the fullest extent of the law. And I say this as a parent. If anyone hurts my children, be it the Archbishop himself, he will pay.

So as far as compensation goes, criminal prosecution. Money doesn’t mean squat.

And don’t equate murder with rape.

I agree with your statement that as a parent you (and I) would make it our life’s mission to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Bravo for you. But that is where we part ways. For you to judge whether a person needs therapy, education or time off to rebuild their lives is wrong, as it is an individual thing. You know nothing about these victims or how much they have been hurt. Don’t be naive. Everyone is not the same and to think lives have not been destroyed is ridiculous. You can rant all you want about not wanting the church to have to pay, but the law states that it is necessary, so get used to it. The church brought this on herself.

 

[TPJCatholic]

snoopy,

It is hardly accurate to say that the Church brought this on herself. 96% of all clergy are NOT guilty of abuse, which means 4% brought this mess on the Church. Without doubt there are higher level people involved as well, yet to condemn the entire Church is just flat wrong. It is also flat wrong, imo, that people can sue for settlements on cases that are 20-40 years old…it is just a huge money grab on many cases. We will agree on the horrors of the abuse, yet it is also horrible to try to rip down the entire Church for the sake of the sins of 4% of its clergy.

There is a feeding frenzy on the Catholic Church and satan is smiling bigtime.

 

[snoopy]

cainem:

i suggest that if therapy is actually needed then the church pay for it, i was also abused as a child not by a priest but a close family friend, i am well adjusted thank you very much not some quivering fruit cake, bad things in life happen, chin up and get on with life if i can do it anyone can, we can also pray for the victims,

And if someone is not well adjusted after abuse, then this compassionate, understanding, church of God must do something to help the victims. After all, the church did this to herself, and has no one else to blame but herself. Now the church has a responsibility to make things right.

 

[Della]

The only reason these lawyers want to sue the pope is to bankrupt the Church and so (they think) destroy it. They are merely using the victims like planned parenthood and others used “Roe” in the famous Roe v Wade case in order to legalize abortion. They don’t really give a damn about the victims.

The whole thing is moot anyway, since BXVI wasn’t pope when all this took place nor was he in charge of the bishops who allowed their priests to get away with child molestation. These lawyers know all that, I’m sure. As I stated above, they aren’t looking for compensation in the way of payments for therapy or restitution, they are men set on destroying the Church and think they have found the perfect way to do it.

It certainly isn’t the first time in history that people of a particular mind set have tried all they could to bring down the Church. Many of the Roman emperors tried it. The early heretics tried it. The so-called Reformers and their supporters tried it. The leaders of the Enlightenment tried it. The No-nothings tried it. Hitler tried it. Stalin tried it. Mao tried it. Castro tried it. The molesters tried it. These lawyers for the victims are trying it. And many others besides. There will be people trying all they can to destroy Christ’s Church from within and without until Christ comes again. Satan has always been and will continue to be very busy in his efforts to keep souls from the saving graces of the Church. I think we would have to really worry if no one was trying it as persecution is a hallmark of the one, true Church.

 

[snoopy]

TPJCatholic:

snoopy,

It is hardly accurate to say that the Church brought this on herself. 96% of all clergy are NOT guilty of abuse, which means 4% brought this mess on the Church. Without doubt there are higher level people involved as well, yet to condemn the entire Church is just flat wrong. It is also flat wrong, imo, that people can sue for settlements on cases that are 20-40 years old…it is just a huge money grab on many cases. We will agree on the horrors of the abuse, yet it is also horrible to try to rip down the entire Church for the sake of the sins of 4% of its clergy.

There is a feeding frenzy on the Catholic Church and satan is smiling bigtime.

I did not say all the claims were true. I am only concerned about the ones that are true. What truly amazes me is that of only 4% of the clergy abusing, that there are so many victims. That means that multiple victims were abused by only a few priests.This is only possible if the heirarchy protected and allowed this to go on for years, which it did. I did not condem the entire church. Only the guilty. I love Jesus with my whole being, and I have faith that the church can redeem itself. It will take time and it will also have to spend time being compassionate and admitting mistakes and putting measures into place never to let this happen again, even if it means scandal or paying for rehabilitation. I think the church is much farther along in this endeavor than some of its followers and posters on this site.

 

[TPJCatholic]

snoopy,

I agree that anyone who has suffered those horrible actions should be cared for. My point is that there is a feeding frenzy right now, with entire dioceses facing possible bankruptcy and even closing. On one hand it is good to clean out the house, on the other hand it is wrong to rob the Church just because it can be done. I think there is an assumption of guilt against the Church, and that is just plain wrong.

The Church will survive, but it will not be easy.

 

[cainem]

snoopy there comes a time when you have to stop being a victim and pick yourself up, it is not easy but it can be done, for those that cannot then the church should foot the bill for counselling but nothing else, the church did not molest those boys sinful men did, money will never bring back their innocence or mine, throw the priest in jail if he is guilty but leave gods church alone