Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Put the pope in the dock

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/apr/02/pope-legal-immunity-international-law
Put the pope in the dock
Legal immunity cannot hold. The Vatican should feel the full weight of
international law
Well may the pope defy "the petty gossip of dominant opinion". But the
Holy See can no longer ignore international law, which now counts the
widespread or systematic sexual abuse of children as a crime against
humanity. The anomalous claim of the Vatican to be a state – and of the
pope to be a head of state and hence immune from legal action – cannot
stand up to scrutiny.
The truly shocking finding of Judge Murphy's commission in Ireland was
not merely that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions but
that the church hierarchy protected the perpetrators and, despite
knowledge of their propensity to reoffend, allowed them to take up new
positions teaching other children after their victims had been sworn to
secrecy.
This conduct, of course, amounted to the criminal offence of aiding and
abetting sex with minors. In legal actions against Catholic archdioceses
in the US it has been alleged that the same conduct reflected Vatican
policy as approved by Cardinal Ratzinger (as the pope then was) as late
as November 2002. Sexual assaults were regarded as sins that were
subject to church tribunals, and guilty priests were sent on a "pious
pilgrimage" while oaths of confidentiality were extracted from their
victims.
In the US, 11,750 allegations of child sex abuse have so far featured in
actions settled by archdioceses – in Los Angeles for $660m and in Boston
for $100m. But some dioceses have gone into bankruptcy and some
claimants want higher level accountability – two reasons to sue the pope
in person. In 2005 a test case in Texas failed because the Vatican
sought and obtained the intercession of President Bush, who agreed to
claim sovereign (ie head of state) immunity on the pope's behalf. Bush
lawyer John B Bellinger III certified that Pope Benedict the XVI was
immune from suit "as the head of a foreign state".
Bellinger is now notorious for his defence of Bush administration
torture policies. His opinion on papal immunity is even more
questionable. It hinges on the assumption that the Vatican, or its
metaphysical emanation, the Holy See, is a state. But the papal states
were extinguished by invasion in 1870 and the Vatican was created by
fascist Italy in 1929 when Mussolini endowed this tiny enclave – 0.17 of
a square mile containing 900 Catholic bureaucrats – with "sovereignty in
the international field ... in conformity with its traditions and the
exigencies of its mission in the world".
The notion that statehood can be created by another country's unilateral
declaration is risible: Iran could make Qom a state overnight, or the UK
could launch Canterbury on to the international stage. But it did not
take long for Catholic countries to support the pretentions of the Holy
See, sending ambassadors and receiving papal nuncios in return. Even the
UK maintains an apostolic mission.
The UN at its inception refused membership to the Vatican but has
allowed it a unique "observer status", permitting it to become signatory
to treaties such as the Law of the Sea and (ironically) the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, and to speak and vote at UN conferences
where it promotes its controversial dogmas on abortion, contraception
and homosexuality. This has involved the UN in blatant discrimination on
grounds of religion: other faiths are unofficially represented, if at
all, by NGOs. But it has encouraged the Vatican to claim statehood – and
immunity from liability.
This claim could be challenged successfully in the UK and in the
European Court of Human Rights. But in any event, head of state immunity
provides no protection for the pope in the international criminal court
(see its current indictment of President Bashir). The ICC Statute
definition of a crime against humanity includes rape and sexual slavery
and other similarly inhumane acts causing harm to mental or physical
health, committed against civilians on a widespread or systematic scale,
if condoned by a government or a de facto authority. It has been held to
cover the recruitment of children as soldiers or sex slaves. If acts of
sexual abuse by priests are not isolated or sporadic, but part of a wide
practice both known to and unpunished by their de facto authority then
they fall within the temporal jurisdiction of the ICC – if that practice
continued after July 2002, when the court was established.
Pope Benedict has recently been credited with reforming the system to
require the reporting of priests to civil authorities, although
initially he blamed the scandal on "gay culture". His admonition last
week to the Irish church repeatedly emphasised that heaven still awaits
the penitent paedophile priest. The Holy See may deserve respect for
offering the prospect of redemption to sinners, but it must be clear
that in law the pope does so as a spiritual adviser, and not as an
immune sovereign.



Temo che questo non ti piacerà.  Dispiace a molti.
--
http://www.corriere.it/cronache/10_aprile_02/cantalamessa-attacchi-chiesa-pedofilia-come-antisemitismo_0ac98d24-3e79-11df-b5a6-00144f02aabe.shtml
«Attacchi al Papa come l'antisemitismo»
Il predicatore della Casa Pontificia: «I fratelli ebrei sanno cosa
significa essere vittime di violenza collettiva»