Suit accuses Vatican of abuse cover-up

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Louisville attorney filed a federal lawsuit against the Vatican on Friday, accusing leaders of the Roman Catholic Church of orchestrating a cover-up of priests who allegedly molested thousands of American children.

William McMurry – who last year represented 243 victims in reaching a $25.7 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Louisville – filed the suit on behalf of three men alleging abuse as far back as 1928 in the Louisville area.

McMurry is seeking to have the lawsuit certified as a class-action case, saying in the suit that he believes there are “at least several thousand” victims nationwide.

“This lawsuit is designed to lay the responsibility for all childhood sexual abuse committed by priests in America at the feet of the responsible party, and that’s the Vatican,” McMurry said in an interview with the Courier-Journal.

Although dioceses in Louisville and elsewhere have paid settlements, he said the “financial responsibility should be shared, if not borne entirely, by the Vatican.”

A receptionist at the Vatican embassy in Washington referred questions to the Vatican’s press office in Rome, which closed before the suit was filed Friday morning.

Mark Chopko, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called McMurry’s suit a “long shot” that likely will be dismissed. Chopko also questioned McMurry’s decision to sue on behalf of plaintiffs who already settled with dioceses. “They have already had their day in court.”

In the suit – filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky – McMurry is asking for unspecified monetary damages from the Vatican.

He also is requesting injunctions requiring the Vatican to “cease its violations of the internationally recognized human rights of children” and “to report all allegations of childhood sexual abuse” in the United States.

And he is asking a federal judge to supervise the Vatican’s conduct for 10 years. The suit was assigned to Judge John G. Heyburn II.