Religion

Canadian court declines to rule on church liability

TORONTO - Canada's Supreme Court declined to rule Thursday on whether the Roman Catholic Church can be sued for sexual assaults committed by its priests.

In a 9-0 judgment, the Ottawa court said the evidence it heard was too weak to support a definitive ruling on such an "important and difficult question."

However, it upheld the right of victims to sue their diocese.

Gregory Stack, a lawyer for victims, said he was pleased with the ruling, which he said helped define "who is the Catholic Church in Canada."

The case centered on assaults committed by Newfoundland priest Kevin Bennett during nearly three decades, beginning in the 1960s.

Bennett admitted his guilt and was sentenced to four years in prison in the early 1990s. Now retired and in his 70s, he continues to draw a church pension.

His 36 victims sued in 1991, claiming damages from Bennett, some of his church superiors, the western Newfoundland diocese of St. George's and the Church.

A trial judge ruled that legal liability extended to Bennett, Bishop Raymond Lahey, former St. John's archbishop Alphonsus Penney and the diocese of St. George's - but not to the entire church.

The Newfoundland Court of Appeal upheld the liability of Bennett and the diocese, but cleared Lahey, Penney and the church.

Robert Johnston, 47, who was abused as a teenage altar boy, said he hoped the ruling would be the end of legal wrangling.

"We won what we went after - who was responsible and who should settle with us," Johnston said from Labrador City.

Stack said the St. George Diocese had argued the church was responsible, not the diocese, a defense Stack rejected.

"A parish priest doesn't take an oath of obedience to the pope; he takes it to the bishop. The bishop is the controlling force, the controlling factor. We think the responsibility lies and rests there," Stack said.

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