The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that the Vatican is immune from evil child sex crimes, meaning victims cannot sue the Church in local courts.
The ruling came after a class-action lawsuit was filed by 24 survivors in the Ghent Court of First Instance against the Holy See and high-ranking officials in the clergy in 2011. The court dismissed the case on Tuesday.
Victims had demanded $11,600 in compensation for each child rape victim because of the Vaticans “policy of silence on the issue of sexual abuse.”
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But the Ghent Court warned that it did not have jurisdiction over the Holy See, which later prompted victims to escalate their case to the top European court.
On Tuesday, the ECHR sided with the Ghent Court in a 6-1 ruling, saying it agreed that the Vatican enjoyed “diplomatic immunity” and “was recognized internationally as having the common attributes of a foreign sovereign, with the same rights and obligations as a state.”
As we reported last week, a bombshell investigation found that a whopping 330,000 children were raped by pedophile priests in France’s Catholic Church over a period of seven decades. Thousands of priests and clergy were accused of rapes during this time.
Rt.com reports: Olivier Savignac, head of victims’ association ‘Parler et Revivre’ (‘Speak Out and Live Again’), said the startling figures equate to “one aggressor for 70 victims,” which he said is “terrifying for the French society, for the Catholic Church.”
In the wake of the damning report, Pope Francis expressed his regret at the findings of the expose, remarking that “it is also my shame, our shame, my shame, for the incapacity of the Church for too long to put them at the center of its concerns,” and implored French bishops to “continue to make every effort so that similar tragedies will not be repeated.”
