VATICAN CITY (AP) — Lawyers for a man who was sexually abused decades ago by a priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf have asked a court to dismiss their lawsuit naming Pope Benedict XVI and other top Vatican officials as defendants.
Attorney Jeff Anderson had filed the lawsuit at the peak of a European explosion of the sex abuse scandal in 2010, alleging that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and his deputies knew about allegations of sexual abuse at St. John's School for the Deaf and prevented internal punishment of the accused priest, the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy.
The Vatican rejected the lawsuit then as a publicity stunt.
Anderson's firm filed a voluntary motion to dismiss in U.S. district court in Milwaukee Friday. Emails seeking comment weren't returned Saturday.
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