8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 NEWS U.S. says Pope immune from sex abuse lawsuit U Lawsuit alleges that the pope was part of a conspiracy to cover up the crimes of a Colombian seminarian accused of molestation ROME (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department has told a Texas court that a lawsuit accusing Pope Bene- dict XVI of conspiring to cover up the sexual molesta- tion of three boys by a seminarian should be dismissed because the pontiff enjoys immunity as head of state of the Holy See. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler said in Monday's filing that allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be "incompatible with the United States' foreign policy interests." There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the southern district of Texas in Houston. However, U.S. courts have been bound by such "suggestion of immunity" motions submitted by the government, Keisler's filing says. A 1994 lawsuit against Pope John Paul II, also filed in Texas, was dismissed after the U.S. government filed a similar motion. Keisler's motion was not unexpected, as the Vatican Embassy in Washington had asked the U.S. government to issue the immunity suggestion and do everything it could to get the case dismissed. The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit by three plaintiffs who allege that Juan Carlos Patino-Arango, a Colombian- born seminarian on assignment at St. Francis de Sales church in Houston, molested them during counseling sessions in the church in the mid-1990s. Patino-Arango has been indicted in a criminal case by a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, and is a fugi- tive from justice. The lawsuit alleges 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 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 pro- ceedings of special church tribunals handling the cases were subject to "pontifical secret." Daniel Shea, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, has said such secret proceedings amounted to a conspiracy f, to cover up the crimes. The Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have insisted the secret church procedures in the sex abuse case were not designed to cover up abuse nor to prevent victims from reporting crimes to law enforcement authorities. The document deals with church law - not keeping secrets from secular authori- ties, they say. The pope's lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, said yesterday it was "appropriate" the Justice Department had deter- mined the pope was "the sitting head of state of the ~ Holy See." In a telephone interview, Lena said the motion would now be considered by the Texas court. "which should AP PHOTO be bound by the executive's determination" and rule in this photo released by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI is presented with a accordingly. gift by Jewish religious leaders at the pontiff's summer residence of Castel Gandolfo in Italy last week. Many lawsuits stemming from the U.S. church sex Shea noted that in trying to have the case dismissed, "The courts have become a lot less interested in the abuse crisis have named the pope, the Vatican and other Ratzinger's lawyers have already admitted in court establishment clause in the last few years" said Kent high-ranking church officials, but they failed because papers that the Holy See is a church. A May 26 motion Greenawalt, a professor of First Amendment and legal the officials could never be served with the papers. This to dismiss the suit, citing the First Amendment, says philosophy at Columbia Law School. case got further than most because Ratzinger was actu- the case should be thrown out because it would "invite Officials at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See said ally served with the documents. court intrusion into the internal affairs of the Roman they were familiar with the case but had no other imme- Shea said yesterday he would challenge the consti- Catholic Church." diate comment. The Yatican said it had no comment. tutionality of the U.S. diplomatic recognition of the However, legal experts said such a challenge would Along with the pope, the lawsuit names as defen- Holy See on the grounds that it goes against the First be difficult to win, partly because previous challenges dants Patino-Arango, the Diocese of Galveston-Hous- Amendment's "establishment clause" that bars any laws have failed and because the U.S. has maintained diplo- ton, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza and'the Rev. William respecting the establishment of religion. matic relations with the Vatican since 1984. Pickhard, Patino-Arango's vocational director. Bush dismisses North Korean demand for reactors WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush adminis- tration is dismissing North Korea's demand for civilian nuclear reactors and appears confident of a final agreement to end that nation's nuclear weapons program. Still, the administration and South Korea foresee difficulties. The next round of negotiations is planned for early November. In the interim, informal dis- cussions among the six negotiating nations - the United States, North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia - are expected. "We are going to get this done," U.S. negotia- tor Christopher Hill told The Associated Press in an interview. He stressed that North Korea must agree to international restraints before its demand can be considered seriously. In New York, Secretary of State Condoleez- za Rice said "we will not get hung up" on the North Korean statement. "We can make progress if everybody sticks to what was actually agreed to," Rice said amid "We can make progress if everybody sticks to what was actually agreed to." - Condoleeza Rice Secretary of State meetings with foreign ministers attending the U.N. General Assembly session. "I think we will just stick with the text of the Beijing agree- ment to which the North Koreans signed on," she said. White House spokesman Scott McClellan, meanwhile, said that if North Korea needed some time to reflect on the agreement reached this week, "We'll give it to them." McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush to survey Hurricane Katrina relief efforts that the agreement spelled out the steps needed to be taken. "Once they take those steps, then we would be prepared to talk fur- ther," he said. Bush spoke by telephone with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and they agreed that verification of North Korea's pledge to aban- don its weapons program was critical, McClel- lan said. Roh's office in Seoul took note of the pros- pect of "various difficulties" in resolving the nuclear issue and said the South Korean presi- dent told Bush he appreciated U.S. "flexibility" - during the negotiations in Beijing. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said: "There are going to be differences. That's to be expected." Describing North Korea's demand as remote, Ereli said, "We're not even close to going that far." North Korea said yesterday it would not dismantle its nuclear weapons program until the United States first provided light-water reactors. "Life is too short to overreact to every state- ment coming out of Pyongyang," Hill said upon his return from negotiations in Beijing. "It obviously was not a helpful statement. But it was not unexpected, either." Still, Hill said North Korea's demand would be discussed at the next round, although he ruled out any such arrangement until North Korea rejoined an international treaty designed to limit the spread of nuclear technology and agreed to international supervision. Under the tentative agreement, South Korea would provide North Korea with the energy it says it needs, Hill said. "They know what they signed on to," Hill said. "We are not surprised by these sorts of statements. There probably will be more of them." Asked if he was confident the breakthrough agreement would be concluded, Hill replied, "I wouldn't have supported it if I did not think it would get done." He noted the agreement is not with the United States alone but with North Korea's neighbors. "That means something in Asia," he said. Freedom House, a private group that cham- pions democracy around the world, welcomed the agreement but its executive director, Jen- nifer Windsor, said there was a risk that inter- national interest in promoting human rights would fall by the wayside. "If North Korea truly wishes to join the community of nations and if its negotiating partners truly wish for a peaceful region, the country's egregious human rights record must be at the focus of serious discussions," she said in a statement. ROOMMATE TOO TALKATIVE? 0 0 0 "i ~u! ' ^sa ° , .. > s a : ._ .z _'_ a . ...v ,,;., .. : .x.,- - ':,." , ,e '.,> vu I