“Impossible” to sue “Sovereign state” the Vatican
A United States lawyer who has successfully sued the US Roman Catholic church over the long-running child sex abuse scandal on Tuesday said cases against the Vatican are crumbling and he is throwing in the towel.
“You have to have an impossible alignment of planets and moons to win any case against the Vatican,” attorney Bill McMurry said a day after he asked a Kentucky court to dismiss a case to hold the Vatican accountable for all child sex abuse by Catholic clergy in the United States.
“It’s out of my hands now. It’s impossible to meet the burdens that the courts have placed on plaintiffs” who take on the Vatican, said McMurry, accusing the US judicial system of protecting the Holy See.
The Supreme Court has refused to review whether the Vatican is a sovereign state and therefore has broad legal immunity from prosecution over the sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States.
