NEW YORK – The International Criminal Court has thrown out a longshot bid by clergy sex abuse victims to investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and other Vatican officials.
The Netherlands-based tribunal says the victims' complaints about church failures to stop abusive Roman Catholic priests seem outside the court's jurisdiction.
The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York filed the request two years ago, asking the court to investigate child rapes by clergy as possible crimes against humanity. Attorneys for the victims claimed Benedict and other Vatican officials created policies that allowed the abuse to continue.
A lawyer for the Vatican has called the complaint ludicrous. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, said Thursday it's collecting new evidence in other parts of the world to ask the tribunal to reconsider.
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