Vatican named in U.S. lawsuits -- Burke, Ronan; lawyer handles hundreds of cases; alleges moving abusers is Church policy to avoid liability

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida. (CNS) -- Amid a flood of new lawsuits against Church officials being filed around the country for clergy sexual abuse of minors, lawyer Jeffrey Anderson gained national attention on April 3 [2002] with two suits naming the Vatican among defendants.
  Past attempts to implicate the Vatican, a sovereign power, in such suits have failed.
  Anderson, a Minnesota attorney who has handled hundreds of clergy sex abuse lawsuits over the past two decades, said at a press conference in St Petersburg that he had evidence of Vatican liability.
  Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls declined to comment on the lawsuits on April 4.
  One suit, filed in Pinellas County Circuit Court in St Petersburg claims Rick Gomez, now 28, was sexually molested in 1987 at Salesian-run Mary Help of Christians school in Tampa by then-Brother William Burke, who subsequently became a Salesian priest.
  It names the Holy See, the Catholic bishop of St Petersburg and the Salesian order as co-defendants with Father Burke.
  The second suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, says the plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, was sexually abused in Portland in 1965 or 1966, at the age of 15 or 16, by Servite Father Andrew Ronan, who was then stationed at his order's Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother in Portland.
  Ronan was laicised in 1966 because of a child sex abuse complaint against him and died 10 years ago.
  The second suit names the Holy See, the Portland and Chicago archdioceses and the Servite Order and its U.S. province.
  Both suits claim the movement of the alleged abusers from one place to another was part of a Church policy and practice aimed at protecting the abusers and the Church from liability for their actions.
  The first suit claims that it is "the policy and practice of defendant Holy See, by and through its bishops, priests, religious superiors and agents, to conceal allegations of child sexual abuse against its clergy from law enforcement authorities, parishioners and the public."
  The second says the Holy See "by and through its agents, granted Ronan facilities to perform as a Roman Catholic priest," and, at the time of the alleged abuse, "also certified and held Ronan out to the community of the faithful as a fit and competent agent of defendant Holy See and a minister of Christ."
  On the lawsuit filed locally, the St Petersburg Diocese said in a statement that the diocese "is not a proper party to this lawsuit" because the school is owned and operated by the Salesians and the diocese "had no authority over William Burke."

  The Chicago Archdiocese -- named in the second suit because Ronan was stationed at a Servite high school there in 1960-65 -- said a review of its records "has not disclosed any incident of misconduct by Father Ronan" during that time.
  It also said he was working there under the auspices of his order and "was not assigned by the archbishop."
  The Portland Archdiocese issued a statement saying that, upon receiving the complaint in 1966, the archdiocese "took swift and decisive action," initiating judicial proceedings under which Ronan was laicised in March 1966.
  The lawsuit claims Ronan was stationed at St Albert's Church in Portland at the time of the abuse.
  The archdiocese said, "In the interest of accuracy, there has never been a St Albert's Parish in Portland."