PREEMPT

Vatican Prepares Legal Defense

Seeks to protect pope, keep secret docs sealed.

Court documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal that the Vatican is launching a defense in a Kentucky lawsuit against the pope that seeks to hold him responsible for priest abuses. The suit was filed in 2004, and accused the Vatican of failing to report the abuse or alert authorities. Vatican lawyers have come up with a three-point plan to deflect the suit, based on the defense that the pope is immune as a head of state, the priests were not under the jurisdiction of the Vatican, and a 1962 document doesn’t prove any coverup by the church. The case is the furthest along in the U.S., which could hold the Vatican responsible for wrongdoing.