Oxnard Man Files Lawsuit Against the Vatican, Alleging Priest Sex Abuse Was Covered Up

Ventura County Star ^ | 10/4/18 | Tom Kisken

[marshmallow]

Manny Vega, of Oxnard, is suing the Vatican and taking on Pope Francis in pursuit of the one thing he’s convinced his nearly 20-year-fight as a clergy abuse survivor and victim advocate has not brought.

“I’m committed to getting to the truth,” he said Thursday, moments after a Los Angeles news conference where the lawsuit was announced. “I’m committed to getting to that elusive transparency the church talks about.”

The litigation, filed Wednesday in federal court for the Central District of California, alleges Vatican leaders have orchestrated a cover-up of priests accused of abuse and top church leaders who have concealed evidence of the abuse.

In what the lawyers who crafted it called an unprecedented action against the Holy See, the lawsuit alleges the conspiracy has created peril that justifies the release of the names of offenders, all records of accused abusers across the globe and the names of top church officials involved in the cover-up.

We’ve come to the sorrowful realization that the problem is at the top,” lawyer Jeff Anderson said at a news conference Thursday in Los Angeles.

Jeffrey Lena, a lawyer who represents the Vatican in civil cases filed in the U.S., declined comment to The Associated Press. He previously said similar lawsuits are attempts by some lawyers “to use the judicial process as a tool of media relations.”

[pepsionice]

At some point, some investigation will go to the core...wire-tap on the Church, and there’s going to be a dozen Priests dragged in to spend fifty years in prison and hundreds of millions taken for compensation.

[moovova]

The Catholic Church is riddled with disease. Time to say the last rights and plant a tombstone. It’s dead, Jim.

[barbarianbabs]

I believe you Manny.