Vatican Insurers See No Evil
As a blogger for Florida Insurance I’m watching the insurance liability of the Vatican through the sex abuse debacle . I have concerns there is an ethical dilemma in offering financial aid to come to the defense of sex offenders .
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The Vatican last week released its defense strategy for sex abuse lawsuits in the US . It makes the contention that Priests are independent contractors and not employees and therefore the Church cannot be held liable for their actions . This is completely wrong . It does not agree with the rules or definitions of the Internal Revenue Service .
A very long time ago , groups believed that Churches should not have to pay taxes . Priests who earned income as employee needed to pay taxes on it , but politicians believed that was a tax on the Church, so the IRS allowed Priests to earn income as “self-employed” individuals and then priests would have to pay social security taxes on their personal earnings . This is a unique rule of the IRS just for priests . No other type of employee can do this.
The IRS definition of an independent contractor is one who is retained to do a certain job but is not under the control of another . In essence this means that the Priest could say I’m not going to do Mass this month and find someone else to do it . he would also not be required to show up at specific times that employees must do. No wedding for you.
This is a silly legal defense . When a Protestant Pastor gets sued , his bishop and National Church will get sued as well . This independent contractor defense flies in the face of IRS rules and legal precedent. The Vatican can be considered a nation-state and may not be able to be held liable , but the United States diocese’s can. However, a world-court can hold governments liable.
I wonder if there is an ethical conundrum to offering liability insurance in these cases . If you know that 95 percent of the lawsuits that will be brought over the next 10 years will be sex abuse suits, do you want to be the ones defending these clergymen? It’s like offering liability to tobacco companies who kill millions of people . That too is just another day at the office but It still bothers me . Would you offer a fire policy to an arsonist?
How high does liability go in this case? The evidence points all the way to the Pope. When Pope Benedict was the head of The Office of Doctrinal Faith, he was the go-to man for all sexual abuse complaints . According to a Kentucky lawsuit complaint, he spent decades refusing to remove a priest accused of sexual crimes in a school for the deaf.
Insurance does good things to protect people. But who is being protected ?
