Apparently the lawyer (a member of the socialist Left party) took the case on after several other lawyers refused to do so. If he is doing the case pro bono, I hope it takes up a lot of his time. If he is not, then "man from Dortmund" may learn a salutary lesson.
The report in The Local (Germany's News in English) tells us that "both Sundermann and his client are no longer members of the Catholic Church." No surprise there, then. (Though of course they are still members of the Catholic Church whether they like it or not.)
6 comments:
If His Holiness can get sued for this, then surely President Obama can get impeached for saying "Let's kick some a&&!" Or the First Lady for not being proud of her country until her husband was elected president.
Great! I though that this was considered a traffic offense- it turns out to be another way to get money out of famous people! Hollywood, look out!
Unless of course they went to "deregister" themselves with their bishop.
I've read about this elsewhere as well. It's just absurd.
It's the teutonic sense of humour...
Just how does Sundermann propose to get round the fact that the Holy Father is the head of another state? I thought that under the law of nations that was impossible.
A. Nicot - "de-registering" does not unbaptise a person. They are still Catholics de facto if not de iure civili
Archie Wedderspoon is, of course, perfectly correct. The Holy Father was in Germany on an official "State Visit" travelling on a Vatican City State diplomatic passport and NOT his German one (which he still retains).
As the Head of State of Vatican City State, under international law, and the Rules of the Court of St James, he cannot be pursued before the German courts, civil or criminal, as he was and is entitled to both diplomatic and sovereign immunity.
This is nothing more nor less than another ludicrous publicity stunt.
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