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      MILWAUKEE (AP) - A lawsuit from the U.S. aims to place blame for
priest sexual abuse at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic
Church by claiming the Vatican controls leadership, fundraising and
doctrine down to the lowest levels.

      The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. federal court claims top
leaders at the Vatican knew about allegations of sexual abuse at
St. John's School for the Deaf outside Milwaukee and called off
internal punishment of the accused priest, the Rev. Lawrence
Murphy.

      The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an Illinois man by St. Paul,
Minn.-based attorney Jeff Anderson, who also has a pending lawsuit
against the Vatican in Oregon for a man who claims he was abused at
his Catholic school in the 1960s.

      Among the pieces of evidence in the Wisconsin suit is a 1995
letter from one of Murphy's alleged victims detailing the problems
at St. John's. It was addressed to the No. 2 person in the Vatican,
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who was then secretary of state.

      It was written a year before it was first believed the case was
brought to the attention of the Vatican.

      The lawsuit intends to prove the Vatican is a global business
empire, practicing in "commercial activity" in Wisconsin and
across the U.S. and holding "unqualified power" over each
diocese, parish and follower.

      The Vatican's U.S.-based attorney, Jeffrey Lena, said in a
statement Thursday that the lawsuit was a publicity stunt with no
merit and it rehashes theories already rejected by U.S. courts.

      The Vatican previously has said that diocese officials and civil
authorities knew about the allegations some 20 years before the
Vatican was ever notified. Because of that, Lena said, it cannot be
held liable for Murphy's abuse.

      Some legal experts questioned the Wisconsin lawsuit's prospects.

      Nicholas Cafardi, a canon lawyer and former dean at the Duquesne
University School of Law, disputes the argument that the Roman
Catholic Church is an international commercial business.

      "He's alleging an employment relationship between individual
priests and the Holy See," Cafardi said. "I'm sorry, but diocesan
priests in the United States are not employees of the Holy See. ...
If a court were to accept that, they would be creating a new
Catholic Church, not the one that exists now."

      Professor Joseph Dellapenna at the Villanova University School
of Law doubts courts will treat the Wisconsin diocese as a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Vatican. He noted a number of dioceses
around the country have filed for bankruptcy because of abuse
cases, and the courts have treated them as separate, independent
entities.

      The biggest issue could be overcoming the Foreign Sovereign
Immunities Act, which sets the rules for U.S. legal action against
sovereign nations, including the Vatican.

      Dellapenna said the suit's claims of misrepresentation and fraud
are barred by the act. Another U.S. appeals court has ruled the act
also bars its claims of emotional distress, he said, though
Wisconsin's 7th Circuit could decide differently.

      But Washington, D.C., attorney Jonathan Levy, a specialist in
international law who has tried suing the Vatican Bank over
Holocaust claims, said Anderson could succeed in taking advantage
of exceptions to sovereign immunity.

      "I'd say he's got some new and exciting theories in there why
the Vatican should be held responsible for its bad acts," Levy
said.

      Anderson said the suit is unique because it's seeking injunctive
relief, not just money, by compelling the Vatican to open its files
on abuse cases.

      "They have been hiding behind legal shields, and we have been
successful so far in the courts in cracking those shields," he
said. "We intend to use this case and others like it to wedge open
those cracks."

      He said the plaintiff had pledged to donate any monetary award
to a fund to be shared by Murphy's victims.

      The lawsuit is the latest move in the case of Murphy, who died
in 1998. He was accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the
deaf school from 1950 to 1974. He was put on a leave of absence
when the allegations were revealed in the early 1970s. The lawsuit
claims Murphy was still allowed to serve in ministry and work with
children in another Wisconsin diocese into the early 1990s.

      Murphy's case drew renewed attention after the recent release of
documents called into question the actions of a Vatican office led
by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

      Before the disclosure of the 1995 letter to Sodano, it was
believed the Vatican first learned of allegations against Murphy in
a July 1996 letter from Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland. That
letter was sent to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith,
the powerful Vatican office Ratzinger led from 1981 to his election
as pope in 2005.

      That office told the archbishop to move forward with a canonical
trial against Murphy in March 1997. But then the office urged a
different course after receiving a letter from Murphy.

      The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, has said they
suggested restricting Murphy from ministry rather than holding a
full-blown canonical trial, citing Murphy's age, failing health,
and a lack of further allegations.

      The Wisconsin bishops ordered the proceedings halted, but in the
end, Murphy died while still a defendant in a canonical trial,
which could have led to Murphy being laicized, or stripped of the
priesthood.

      Sodano has long been accused in news reports in U.S. Catholic
publications and other outlets of stalling a Vatican probe of the
Rev. Marcial Maciel, the discredited founder of the Legionaries of
Christ. The order has admitted that the late Maciel fathered at
least one child and molested young seminarians.

      Anderson provided a copy of a receipt showing the registered
letter to Sodano had reached the Vatican. The man wrote Sodano
again and got no response, according to Anderson.

      Lena said that at the time, it was a local matter regarding a
local priest and the victim had already communicated with the local
bishop. Under those circumstances, Lena said it is "entirely
appropriate" under canon law for the local diocese - not the Holy
See - to respond.


      Associated Press Writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Patrick
Condon in St. Paul, Minn., and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City
contributed to this report. Eric Gorski reported from Denver.

Gallery

St. Paul attorney on the front lines of church abuse crisis

A brief timeline of Jeffrey Anderson's life and career

St. Paul attorney sues Vatican, pope over Murphy case

Pope promises action against clerical sex abuse

Minn. dioceses say clergy abuse prevention efforts are working

Crime, Law and Justice

Religion and Faith

A lawsuit from the U.S. aims to place blame for
priest sexual abuse at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic
Church by claiming the Vatican controls leadership, fundraising and
doctrine down to the lowest levels.

Lawsuit tries tough sell: Vatican as business

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