Lena told The Am Law Daily via email Monday that "it is still the case that I represent the Holy See in cases" filed in the U.S. He was unavailable for further comment about his status as the Vatican's outside counsel of choice. (Lena did release a statement to The Associated Press on Monday calling a U.S. suit filed against Benedict in 2010 accusing him of covering up instances of abuse when he was cardinal as being nothing more than a "ludicrous publicity stunt and misuse of international judicial processes.")
Lena's role on behalf of the Holy See aside, there remains enough Church-related litigation in the U.S. to keep more than a few large firms busy in state and federal courts.
Last month a Philadelphia jury convicted both a priest and a former parochial school teacher of molesting the same middle school student in one of the city's first prosecutions of Church officials for sexually abusing parishioners, according to sibling publication The Legal Intelligencer. Michael J. McGovern, of counsel at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, represented the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, who was convicted of indecent assault and endangering the welfare of a child. The case went to trial earlier this year.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which employed Engelhardt, is the target of civil cases accusing it of covering up incidents of sexual abuse. The Legal Intelligencer reported last year that the archdiocese's longtime outside counsel at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young has been accused of concealing certain Church documents.
Mark Chopko, chair of the nonprofit and religious organizations practice at Stradley in Washington, D.C., previously served as general counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Chopko, who spoke with The Am Law Daily several years ago about his practice, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Some former Catholic priests accused of abuse have used the courts to fight back. Last year a monsignor filed a libel suit against the Archdiocese of New York in federal court in Manhattan after he was defrocked over sex abuse claims. Kelley Drye & Warren partner John Callagy—the firm's immediate past chair—and partner Nicholas Panarella are representing the archdiocese in the suit.
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Consider This
If a major financial services company was caught up in an insider-trading scandal involving employees around the world, and the CEO was sent memos about this activity, some of which he may or may not have read, don't you think that person might be out of a job? The staunch papal defenders have to consider the fact that even if Benedict/Ratzinger was not complicit in the scandlas that have roiled the church, he was responsible for forging a solution and addressing the issue in a forthright manner. None of that happened. I hold John Paul II equally responsible here, as he skated by on his charisma, something that Benedict was unfortunately not blessed with.
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Martin Luther
Sorry folks, to claim that Benedict was completely in the dark about all of this is just not true. Under JPII, Ratzinger centralized the church's procedures for investigating priests accused of abuse. Reform starts from the top. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/sex-abuse-scandal-did-archbishop-ratzinger-help-shield-perpetrator-from-prosecution-a-684970.html
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Juli
Tony, above, said it all.
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Tony
The Pope's resignation does not throw the spotlight on lawyers handling long-running sex abuse litigation, Am Law Daily does. The Holy Father is resigning over health issues not because of the sex abuse scandals. The headline is something I would expect to see in some cheap tabloid to sell more papers. I expect more from Am Law Daily, what a disappointment!
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