(VIDEO) Oregon judge orders Vatican and Benedict XVI to show files in abuse case

Updated April 26, 2011

Last year, it was the New York Times that shook Benedict XVI and the Vatican and he had no choice but to defend himself and he acted like a spectacle fool especially at St. Peter's Square during Holy Week saying that the New York Times expose of him was Cheap Gossip, Cardinal Sodano second the motion him and the papal preacher did the same thing. Read our coverage here http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/anti-semitism-card-vatican-defense.html

and

http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-york-times-church-office-failed-to.html

Well this Holy Week this year, it is the Oregon Judge who is shaking and ordering Benedict XVI to reveal those secret files at the Vatican archives about a man who was sexually abused by a priest. We shall see how foolish will be his response this time during Holy Week.

Read our related articles:

The narcissism and grandiosity of John Paul II, Cardinal Bernard Law, Benedict XVI, and Bishop Roger Vangheluwe are nauseating and despicable

Benedict XVI slaps faces of victims by sending Cardinal Regali as his envoy to the Czech Republic…while 37 Philadelphia rapists-priests are active http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/04/benedict-xvi-slaps-faces-of-victims-by.html

Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America

Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity. The Opus Dei controlled the 27 years papacy of John Paul II and therefore is the group most responsible for the cover-up of the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army!


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" REMARKABLE "




Press Conference: Unprecedented ruling requires Vatican to answer for clergy abuse cover-up

[video]

At a news conference on Monday in St. Paul, prominent clergy abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, along with constitutional law scholar and attorney Marci Hamilton, will provide analysis and background around a groundbreaking order and opinion issued on Thursday in John V. Doe v. Holy See.

Unprecedented ruling requires Vatican to answer for clergy abuse cover-up in U.S. courtroomST. PAUL (MN)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

What: At a news conference on Monday in St. Paul, prominent clergy abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, along with constitutional law scholar and attorney Marci Hamilton, will provide analysis and background around a groundbreaking order and opinion issued on Thursday in John V. Doe v. Holy See.

The historic order, that a clergy sex abuse case against the Vatican can proceed to discovery of records and documents in the Vatican and eventually the questioning of a high ranking Vatican official, is the latest action forward in the almost decade long case of John V. Doe v. Holy See.

Earlier in the case, the Holy See claimed sovereign immunity from the suit and moved the court to dismiss the case. However, both the Federal District Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Holy See’s motion. As a result, the Holy See petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court t hear the case on appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition. With Thursday’s ruling, the case now moves to an unprecedented level requiring the Holy See to produce documents and answer plaintiff’s questions.

When: Monday, April 25 at 12 Noon CDT

Where: Jeff Anderson & Associates, 366 Jackson Street, Suite 100, St. Paul, MN

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Vatican Ordered to Release Records for Sex-Abuse CaseOREGON
Courthouse News Service

[court ruling]

By DEE MOORE

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) - In a rare legal feat, a man who claims to have been sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1960s can conduct discovery on the Vatican, a federal judge ruled.

The order compelling the Vatican to produce documents in the 11-year old lawsuit marks an unheard-of step in sex-abuses cases against the Catholic Church. While archdioceses in the United States have been found liable in similar cases, this case boldly seeks to take the matter all the way to Rome, holding the governmental body of the denomination accountable, and not just the North American arm of the vast organization.

The plaintiff, who sued anonymously as John Doe, seeks to hold the church accountable through the Holy See for the abuse he says he suffered at the hands of the Rev. Andrew Ronan who died in 1992.

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Judge orders Vatican to show files in abuse case

OREGON
Bellingham Herald

By NIGEL DUARA - Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. A federal judge in Oregon ruled Thursday that the Vatican must respond to certain requests for information from a man who says he was molested by a priest in the 1960s.

The man known in court documents as John V. Doe filed suit eight years ago. He seeks to hold the Vatican liable for the abuse he said he suffered from the Rev. Andrew Ronan, who died in 1992.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman ruled that Doe is entitled to limited discovery related to whether the priest was an employee of the Vatican.

The Vatican has denied that it was Ronan's employer, citing the facts it found in files from other related Catholic organizations in the case.


Mosman ruled that Ronan may have been under the control of a U.S. Catholic organization, but said in the order that such a system doesn't preclude Ronan from also being an employee of the Vatican.

Doe's attorney, Jeff Anderson, of St. Paul, Minn., said the order goes further than any previous case by forcing the Vatican to turn over documentation. "It's the first time anyone's laid a glove on them to the extent they had to turn documents over," Anderson said.

In his ruling, Mosman cited "significant factual disputes" as to whether the Holy See had the right to control and fire Ronan, and ruled that Doe is entitled to some limited discovery.

The Vatican will be required to answer written questions within 60 days related to its process of defrocking, its policies regarding sexual abuse and its regulation of priests' conduct, among other requests made by Doe, but Mosman limited all of the discovery to files involving Ronan.

Mosman also granted Doe's request that the Vatican produce documents related to its practices and policies regarding sexual abuse and punishment, removal, relocation and treatment of priests, but again limited them to Ronan's specific case.

Jeffery Lena, an attorney for the Vatican, said the implications of the decision are still unknown.

"As a factual matter, Ronan was not a Holy See employee, and the Holy See was not aware of Ronan's misconduct until after Ronan had abused the plaintiff," Lena said in a statement released to The Associated Press on Thursday night.

He declined to comment further.

The Vatican has argued it wasn't responsible for Ronan or his multiple transfers. Amid allegations of sexual abuse, court documents say, Ronan was transferred from Ireland to Chicago and then to Portland, where Doe said the abuse occurred.

In papers filed last summer, Vatican lawyers said hundreds of documents from Catholic officials showed that U.S. officials of the priest's order "knew of Ronan's propensities and transferred Ronan," but the Holy See "had no prior knowledge regarding Ronan" and no role in moving him.

Similar stories:

Vatican served with court docs in Wis. abuse case

The Vatican has been served with court papers stemming from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse against a now-deceased priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf, attorneys for the accuser and the Vatican said Tuesday.

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COURT: Jesuits settle NW abuse claims for $166 million

In one of the largest monetary payouts nationwide in the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis, and the largest one by a religious order, the Jesuit order in the Northwest has agreed to pay $166.1 million to about 500 abuse victims as part of its bankrutpcy settlement.

The settlement between the victims and the order’s Oregon Province, the Northwest chapter of the Jesuits, also asks the order to provide a written apology to the victims and to share documents with them such as their personal medical records.
Many of the abuses happened to Native American or Alaska Native children. Some were living in remote Alaskan villages when they were abused, others on reservations or in Christian boarding schools into which the federal government had forcibly placed them in an attempt to assimilate them into the dominant culture.

Vatican sanctions Belgian bishop who abused nephew

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/04/21/1980255/judge-orders-vatican-to-show-files.html#ixzz1KHqiH7Tg

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U.S. Federal District Court order is first ever compelling Vatican to produce documents in clergy abuse cover-up case

April 21, 2011

UNITED STATES
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[the court opinion]

(St. Paul, Minnesota USA) For the first time ever, the highest officials of the Catholic Church in Rome are being forced by a U.S. judge to turn over documents about clergy sex abuse and cover ups.

Late today, an Oregon judge ruled that a child sex abuse case against the Vatican can proceed to discovery of records and documents in the Vatican that pertain to a predator priest and his connections to the Vatican.

In his order United States District Judge Michael W. Mosman wrote:“Here, Plaintiff has proffered evidence that tends to show the Holy See knew of Ronan’s propensities and that in some cases, the Holy See exercised direct control over the conduct, placement, and removal of individual priests accused of similar sexual misconduct.”

Jeff Anderson, the attorney for the plaintiff in John V. Doe v. Holy See said today that Judge Mosman’s order is a “historic step in getting to the bottom of the world-wide tragedy of clergy sex abuse of children.”


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Judge: Clergy abuse victim entitled to “jurisdictional discovery” in John V. Doe v. Holy See

http://andersonadvocates.com/Posts/News-or-Event/787/US-Federal-District-Court-order-is-first-ever-compelling-Vatican-to-produce-documents-in-clergy-abuse-cover-up-case.aspx

(St. Paul, Minnesota USA) For the first time ever, the highest officials of the Catholic Church in Rome are being forced by a U.S. judge to turn over documents about clergy sex abuse and cover ups.

Late today, an Oregon judge ruled that a child sex abuse case against the Vatican can proceed to discovery of records and documents in the Vatican that pertain to a predator priest and his connections to the Vatican.

In his order United States District Judge Michael W. Mosman wrote: “Here, Plaintiff has proffered evidence that tends to show the Holy See knew of Ronan’s propensities and that in some cases, the HolySee exercised direct control over the conduct, placement, and removal of individual priests accused of similar sexual misconduct.”

Jeff Anderson, the attorney for the plaintiff in John V. Doe v. Holy See said today that Judge Mosman’s order is a “historic step in getting to the bottom of the world-wide tragedy of clergy sex abuse of children.”

John V. Doe v. Holy See is in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. Earlier in the case, Holy See claimed sovereign immunity from the suit and moved the court to dismiss the case. However, both the Federal District Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Holy See’s motion. As a result, the Holy See petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case on appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition. As a result of the Judge’s order today the case now moves to a new level requiring the Holy See to produce documents and answer plaintiff’s questions.

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Oregon ruling could affect Milwaukee priest abuse case
Court order to Vatican may affect Murphy case

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
April 26, 2011 |(6) Comments

A federal judge in Oregon has ordered the Vatican to produce documents involving a now-dead priest accused of sexually assaulting a boy in the 1960s, a first-of-its kind ruling that could set a precedent for a similar case in Milwaukee.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman, who issued the narrow decision, said the documents were needed to determine whether Father Andrew Ronan was an employee of the Vatican at the time of the abuse - a key question in deciding whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the case on its merits.

"The Plaintiff has proffered evidence that tends to show the Holy See knew of Ronan's propensities and that, in some cases . . . exercised direct control over . . . priests accused of similar sexual misconduct," Mosman said.

Lawyers for the Oregon victim, identified in court records as John V. Doe, called Thursday's ruling groundbreaking and said it addresses the same issues raised in the Milwaukee case involving the late Father Lawrence Murphy, a serial pedophile believed to have molested hundreds of deaf boys over decades.

"It's huge. That's the very claim we're making in Milwaukee, and it's a door that's never been opened before," said St. Paul, Minn., attorney Jeffrey Anderson.

Whether Mosman can compel the Vatican to produce the records was not clear Monday.

"The relationship between sovereign nations is so much more political than legal," said Lisa Laplante, a visiting professor who teaches international law at Marquette University Law School. "Is the U.S. going to go after the Holy See for not handing over discovery documents? I kind of doubt it.

"It's not like in the U.S., where the government can compel cooperation," she said.

Vatican attorney Jeffrey Lena did not immediately return telephone calls and emails seeking comment. He told The Associated Press that the implications of the decision are not yet known.

"As a factual matter, Ronan was not a Holy See employee, and the Holy See was not aware of Ronan's misconduct until after Ronan had abused the plaintiff," Lena said in a statement.

Mosman gave the Vatican 60 days to answer a series of questions and produce all documents related to Ronan, as well as general documents detailing its policies on such matters as the removal, relocation and treatment of priests.

Mosman rejected the requests for a number of other documents, including those involving priests not named in the case.

"Some of these broad requests appear to be based on little more than a hunch that might yield valuable or embarrassing information about the Holy See and other instances of sexual abuse," he said.

The Vatican maintains that it is protected from prosecution by sovereign immunity. However, U.S. law limits that protection in cases where a foreign entity has a commercial interest or has engaged in a wrongful act.

Mosman said the Holy See has refused to say whether it knew of Ronan's abuse or played a role in his training, education, transfers or removal. It has pointed instead to documents provided by Ronan's order showing that it was his employer. But Mosman ruled that one did not preclude the other - a finding that could be relevant in the Milwaukee case where the Archdiocese of Milwaukee had employed Murphy.