Vatican Herald - Catholic News and Information

Catholic Church's statehood claim is troubling

Giuseppe dalla Torre, a top Vatican legal adviser, declared in a pre-emptive strike last week that Pope Benedict XVI could not be sued in an American court.

His statement - in response to allegations that the pope played a role in covering up, among other scandals, the sexual abuse of children at a Wisconsin school for the deaf - was unequivocal. "The pope is certainly a head of state, who has the same juridical status as all heads of state," Dalla Torre said, which grants him immunity from foreign courts.

But is the spiritual leader of the world's Roman Catholics really a "head of state" as well?

Benedict XVI is the head of the church's governing body - known as the Holy See - which claims many of the privileges of a sovereign country. In recent decades the Holy See has welcomed ambassadors, signed international treaties and used its status to influence developments at the United Nations.

That the Holy See is often treated as a state is deeply troubling. The church's claim to statehood gives it even more political influence than it would otherwise wield and grants outsized power to only one of the world's many religions. And its claim is particularly worrisome now that the church - embroiled in a disturbing scandal that has reached from Boston to Berlin - is claiming the sort of immunity enjoyed by prime ministers and presidents.

The concept of sovereign statehood first developed in 17th-century Europe, where the church was long treated as a quasi-state by Western powers. The Papal States existed within Italy for centuries. At their height, the Papal States made up most of central Italy and parts of what is now Southern France.

But the church's territorial holdings were lost in battles over time, and by the end of the 19th century, the church was essentially landless. Then, in the late 1920s, Vatican City was carved out of Rome via a treaty with Italy. The Holy See and Vatican City are legally distinct, but Vatican City was created to give the Holy See a territorial home and thereby safeguard its independence.

Despite opposition from many quarters, the Reagan administration initiated formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See in the 1980s. Today, nearly every country main



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