U.S. Says Pope Can't Be Sued

Government Suggests Pope Be Given Immunity In Abuse Cover-up Suit

(AP) 
The lawsuit alleges that Ratzinger, who headed the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before becoming pope, was involved in a conspiracy to hide Patino-Arango's crimes and to help him escape prosecution.

The lawsuit cites a May 18, 2001, letter from Ratzinger, written in Latin to bishops around the world, explaining that "grave" crimes such as the sexual abuse of minors would be handled by his congregation and that the proceedings of special church tribunals handling the cases were subject to "pontifical secret."

Daniel Shea, attorney for one of the three boys, has said such secret proceedings amounted to a conspiracy to cover up the crimes.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See said they were familiar with the case but had no other immediate comment.

Shea has said that if the pope is granted immunity, he would challenge the constitutionality of the U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Holy See on the grounds that it goes against the First Amendment's "establishment clause" that bars any laws respecting the establishment of religion.

"Here is what we've been waiting for," Shea said in an e-mail Tuesday in providing the documents. "Now the constitutional conflict is on in earnest."

However, legal experts said such a challenge would be difficult to win, in part because previous challenges have failed and because the United States has maintained diplomatic relations with the Vatican since 1984.

"The courts have become a lot less interested in the establishment clause in the last few years," said Kent Greenawalt, a professor of First Amendment and legal philosophy at Columbia Law School and the author of "Does God Belong in Public Schools?"