Diplomatic immunity for pope challenged

HOUSTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A Texas lawyer with a suit pending against three Roman Catholic Church officials will challenge the constitutionality of granting the pope diplomatic immunity.

Houston attorney Daniel Shea said Pope Benedict XVI should be considered the head of a church, not the head of state.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler has filed in a Houston federal court to grant the pope immunity. He said the move is in the United States' best foreign policy interest.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pope's former name, is a defendant in a lawsuit that not only claims the church didn't do enough to stop the abuse of children, but it assisted in it.

Shea's clients are three unidentified males who claim they were abused 10 years ago.

The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza and Monsignor William Pickard are also named in the suit with Ratzinger.

Juan Carlos Patino Arango, a former seminary student named in the lawsuit, has allegedly run away to Colombia.