Consequences of the Catholic Church's claim of statehood
Giuseppe dalla Torre, a top Vatican legal advisor, declared in a preemptive 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.