03 Feb Vatican Sovereignty
(Note: I’m going to pull down most of this post, although alas it makes Peter’s comment not relevant to anything. Martined over at VC points out a couple of mistakes. I think I”m going to delete anything but the reference to the news article. Peter, apologies I’ve untethered your comment!)
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that the Vatican has refused service of process in a widely-followed priest child abuse case.
The Vatican has refused service of a federal lawsuit over its handling of the notorious sex offender Father Lawrence Murphy — a move that could delay the Milwaukee lawsuit for months if not years, victims’ advocates said Monday …. But a California-based lawyer for the Vatican dismissed it as a procedural step in keeping with U.S. laws on diplomatic relations that allow states to choose how to be served in lawsuits.
Ken:
Your forgetting about the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta which maintains it’s sovereignty even though it is religious in nature. Sovereignty does not require one to actually have a country/territory though it helps, then again Palestinians have a country though don’t have sovereignty and Taiwan/Kosovo/Transnistria have both a country and sovereignty but can’t vote in the U.N. Compared to these guys the Vatican has a strong case to claim sovereignty having a country, a vote, and historic independence.
@Peter: Great minds think alike. I mentioned the Order of Malta as well in my abovementioned VC comment. Whether they qualify as a sovereign (and whether the Holy See does) is a question that has fascinated me for years.
Response…