Vatican Served with Court Documents in Wisconsin Abuse case

The U.S. State Department says the Vatican has been served with court papers stemming from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse against a now-deceased priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf.

In a news release Tuesday, the defendants’ attorney Jeff Anderson says the lawsuit was successfully filed through official diplomatic channels. An attorney adviser with the State Department confirms in a letter that the Vatican received the documents last week.

The lawsuit was filed nearly a year ago in federal court. It claims Pope Benedict XVI and two other top Vatican officials knew about allegations of sexual abuse at the Milwaukee-area school and called off internal punishment of the accused priest.

An email seeking comment from the Vatican’s U.S.-based attorney, Jeffrey Lena, was not immediately returned.