THE US: The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, in California, has sued the Archdiocese of Boston, claiming that Boston officials hid the history of sexual molestation of former priest Paul Shanley when he moved to California.
The lawsuit, filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, is believed to mark the first time that one US Catholic diocese has sued another in civil court, according to both dioceses.
As such it is a further indication of how the sex-abuse scandal has moved through the Catholic Church, overturning long-established customs.
A spokesman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington called the lawsuit, at the least, a "rarity". The lawsuit accuses Catholic officials in Boston of engaging in "misrepresentations and suppression of information" as well as "active misconduct and negligence" in hiding the background of Shanley, who has been accused of molesting boys since 1967. He moved to San Bernardino in 1990 and has been accused in a civil lawsuit of assaulting at least one teenage boy while there.
In that lawsuit, Kevin English has sought damages from both dioceses, claiming he was abused from the age of 17.
San Bernardino officials say they have not turned up evidence to corroborate English's claims so far, but a settlement could nonetheless cost upwards of $12 million. That would be enough to push the diocese "to the brink of bankruptcy," said the Rev Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the diocese.
The lawsuit aims to ensure whatever amount Mr English is paid comes from Boston, not San Bernardino. "We should not have to pay for Boston's mistake," Father Lincoln said.
Although the Roman Catholic Church is a worldwide organisation with an international hierarchy, each diocese is legally treated as a separate entity with its own assets and income.
In Boston, Donna M. Morrissey, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said officials had not yet seen the lawsuit and would not comment.
Asked if any other diocese had sued the Boston archdiocese, she said, "It's the first time I've heard of it happening."
Others, however, said the case shows that disagreements among the US bishops, which have until now been confined to closed-door meetings, increasingly are becoming public.
The lawsuit "shows how deeply the church has been affected" by the sex-abuse scandal, said the Rev Thomas Rausch, chairman of the theology department at Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles. The scandal is eroding "the communion that unites the dioceses together as one church in the United States," he said. - (AP)