This week the US supreme court issued a decision against the Vatican the importance of which has been compared by one lawyer to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

That may sound like an exaggeration, but the court’s decision that the Vatican does not have legal immunity in a claim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest could have far-reaching ramifications for the church.

The case, John V Doe v Holy See, has been filed by a plaintiff (using a pseudonym) who claims to have been sexually abused on several occasions in the mid-1960s by a Roman Catholic priest called Andrew Ronan . The claim was filed back in 2002, and thanks to the court’s decision last week, it can finally proceed against the Vatican – allegedly liable because it acted as the priest’s employer.

Jeffrey Lena, the US-based lawyer who is defending the Vatican, has argued that the Holy See should not be regarded as an employer of priests because it does not pay them any salary, or benefits, and does not exercise a day-to-day control on their activity.

But the real issue in the case has been immunity. The Vatican attempted to invoke the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) of 1976, under which foreign states cannot be sued. The supreme court refused to allow this.

Continues: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/belief/2010/jul/01/without-immunity-can-vatican-survive