Pedophile Priests

The Vatican is using the legal argument that they cannot be held legally responsible for their perverted priests since a direct employment relationship did not exist.

I would argue otherwise. The church in America did not have the authority to defrock a priest because he was butt fucking young boys in his parish. Only the Vatican in Rome could do that, and frequently they did not. The church laws, rules, and regulations that the priests had to live up to were set in Rome, not locally. If a priest were investigated due to his sexual perversions, it was done so by an office out of Rome. If the Vatican in Rome wanted the man reassigned to another duty post, they had the power to make this happen.

Clearly Rome called the shots, so enough of an employment relationship existed for the Vatican bosses to be held fully accountable.

The Vatican is also arguing that the Pope cannot legally be charged because he has legal immunity as the head of state for an independent country. This argument has pros and cons, but at the end of the day I think it is clear that the Pope will not be going to jail over this issue.

The vehemence that the Vatican is using in attacking the authorities in Belgium shows that they still think their authority and their rules equal or maybe even supersede those of the secular society. Perhaps they could sell this idea in the 1950's but not in 2010. No way Jose'.

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