Ploy to downgrade Vatican’s UN status

Shea, himself a former seminarian educated in law at Catholic University of America, has demanded that the US waive the Pope’s diplomatic immunity as head of state in the suit, a move that has been characterised as absurd by international legal experts.

He told reporters in Rome that, should the Bush administration decide to "grant" the Pope immunity, he would launch a constitutional challenge to have the US de-recognise the Holy See as a sovereign state. Shea’s anti-Catholic biases were revealed at the press conference at which he made this announcement which was held under the aegis of the Italian Radical Party, a branch of one of Europe’s most openly anti-Catholic organisations.

According to State Department spokeswoman, Gerry Keener, however, no formal declaration of diplomatic immunity is required.

The Pope is recognised by the US as a head of state and automatically has diplomatic immunity. Keener said that Benedict does not have to ask for immunity and Bush does not have to grant it.

Shea’s case rests on a letter issued in 2001 by then-Cardinal Ratzinger to the world’s bishops stipulating that cases of sexual assault that came before the Church’s canonical tribunals be subject to "pontifical secret." The use of this phrase, one that indicates that the Vatican is responding to the allegations with utmost seriousness, is being used by Shea to prove that Ratzinger was attempting to protect accused molesters from civil prosecution.

The letter, however, refers only to matters of internal Church governance and the status of those accused under canon law. "To insinuate that this letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is part of a Vatican conspiracy is a total and complete misunderstanding of the purpose of the letter," Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston said in a statement.

This is not the first time radically dissident "Catholics" have attempted to undermine the international legal status of the Holy See.

The last attempt was made by the bogus group, "Catholics" for a Free Choice, when in 1999, they launched a postcard campaign to have the Holy See delegation ousted from the UN. The presence and prestige of the Vatican diplomatic corps at international conferences such as those on population at Cairo and Beijing have long been a thorn in the side of groups working to promote abortion and sterilisation.

POPE CALLS FOR

VIGILANCE

AGAINST

ANTISEMITISM

Meanwhile, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre said that the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI at the Cologne Synagogue calling for increased vigilance to combat the rising tide of antisemitism was timely and important.

"The Pope’s presence in a synagogue originally destroyed by the Nazis and his call for more vigilance to confront increased antisemitism was an important statement that continues in the path of Pope John Paul II and should put to rest the controversy over his failure to mention terrorist attacks against Israel," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Centre.

"The fact that in his very first foreign visit as Pope he went to the Cologne Synagogue is an indication of the importance that the Church attaches to its relationship with the Jews," continued Hier.

"I’m confident that Benedict XVI will be as vigorous in confronting terrorism against Jews as he is in confronting antisemitism," Rabbi Hier concluded.

In 2003, Rabbi Hier led a Wiesenthal Centre delegation to the Vatican for a private audience with the late John Paul II.

It was at this meeting that the Centre launched its campaign calling on the international community to recognise suicide bombings as "crimes against humanity."

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organisations with over 400,000 member families in the United States.

It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.