Dismissing Catholic abuse victims’ lawsuit, ECHR rules Vatican cannot be sued in European courts

It was the ECHR’s first case to deal with the immunity of the Holy See, the court said.A group of 24 Belgian, French and Dutch abuse survivors attempted to sue the Holy See and Catholic Church leaders in Belgian courts beginning in 2011, but courts in that country ruled they did not have jurisdiction over the Vatican, the European Court of Human Rights said Tuesday in explaining its ruling.The abuse survivors — who said they were abused by priests when they were children — fought their way up through the Belgian court system before bringing their suit to the European court in 2017, the ECHR said.The survivors argued that they had been denied right of access to a court, under article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that everyone is entitled to a fair trial. The applicants first filed a class action in the Ghent Court of First Instance in July 2011. They claimed that the defendants should be liable to pay 10,000 euros (approximately $11,600) in compensation to each survivor in compensation “because of the Catholic Church’s policy of silence on the issue of sexual abuse.” In October 2013, the Ghent Court declined jurisdiction in respect of the Holy See, the ruling said. On Tuesday, the ECHR ruled 6-1 in the case of J.C. and Others v. Belgium, saying that the Vatican is a sovereign state that can not be sued, and that there had been nothing “unreasonable or arbitrary” in the Belgian courts’ adopting that position.The court’s decision, however, is not final and any party can request an appeal, known as a “Grand Chamber review,” within three months of the ruling.Tuesday’s ruling comes as the Catholic Church is facing a reckoning on sexual abuse, with a growing number of survivors fighting for justice. Last week a landmark report found that France’s Doyle added in a statement: “The church’s dual identity as a religion and a state allows it to shape-shift according to the threat it faces in courts … No other religious institution enjoys the same buffet of legal protections. The result is that the church repeatedly evades justice and its untold millions of victims are left to suffer.” On Wednesday, a Vatican tribunal on absolved a former altar boy on charges that he sexually abused a fellow student at a seminary located inside Vatican City. Fr. Gabriele Martinelli, now 29, was a student at the St Pius X Seminary at the time when the alleged abuses occurred, from 2007-2012. Martinelli was accused of molesting a younger student while they were both minors. In addition to Martinelli, the seminary’s former rector, Fr. Enrico Radice was also absolved of charges of cover-up. The trial was the first of its kind dealing with abuses alleged to have occurred at the Vatican. The St. Pius X Seminary houses boys aged 12-18 who are considering the priesthood and who serve mass at St. Peter’s. In May, Francis ordered that the seminary find a new home outside the Vatican. CNN’s Delia Gallagher and Saskya Vandoorne contributed reporting.