Vatican, Pope Sued for Sexual Abuse Harm

U.S. Catholic church hit with two national lawsuits by sex-abuse victims

Class-action suit names Holy See in Vatican as defendant, cites federal racketeering laws.

By Tom Jackman November 14 at 9:08 PM

Two groups of victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members have launched simultaneous lawsuits against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, with one class-action suit also naming the Holy See as a defendant. The suit accuses the Catholic church of conspiracy and operating a continuing criminal enterprise under federal racketeering statutes, and attempts to be the first to hold the Vatican liable in the United States for the actions of its clergy.

The suits demand that the church produce the names of all accused sex offenders listed in the church’s secret archives nationwide. Both suits were filed Tuesday, apparently by coincidence, the lawyers said. But the class-action suit, filed in federal court in the District, also seeks financial damages for assault, gross negligence, emotional distress and wrongful death, for the families of those who committed suicide after being abused by a priest or other Catholic official. And the class action seeks to triple those financial damages under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, originally written to target organized crime but appropriate for a church accused of “cheating and defrauding Plaintiffs and Class members out of their childhood, youth, innocence, virginity, families, jobs, finances, assets — in short, their lives,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit filed in Washington notes that the Holy See has successfully avoided liability in the United States by claiming it did not have direct authority over priests. But then on Monday, as the bishops were meeting at their national conference in Baltimore to address the issue, they were directed by a letter from the Vatican to stop the discussion, and did. “If that’s not command responsibility, I don’t know what is,” said Mitchell A. Toups, one of the lead attorneys in the class-action case.

Editor's note:

 “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues