Pope will have security, immunity by remaining in the Vatican

Pope Benedict's decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.   

"His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn't have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else," said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.   

"It is absolutely necessary" that he stays in the Vatican, said the source, adding that Benedict should have a "dignified existence" in his remaining years.   

Vatican sources said officials had three main considerations in deciding that Benedict should live in a convent in the Vatican after he resigns on Feb. 28.   

Vatican police, who already know the pope and his habits, will be able to guarantee his privacy and security and not have to entrust it to a foreign police force, which would be necessary if he moved to another country.   

"I see a big problem if he would go anywhere else. I'm thinking in terms of his personal security, his safety. We don't have a secret service that can devote huge resources (like they do) to ex-presidents," the official said.   

Another consideration was that if the pope did move permanently to another country, living in seclusion in a monastery in his native Germany, for example, the location  might become a place of pilgrimage.   

POTENTIAL EXPOSURE   

This could be complicated for the Church, particularly in the unlikely event that the next pope makes decisions that may displease conservatives, who could then go to Benedict's place of residence to pay tribute to him.   

"That would be very problematic," another Vatican official said.   

The final key consideration is the pope's potential exposure to legal claims over the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals.   

In 2010, for example, Benedict was named as a defendant in a law suit alleging that he failed to take action as a cardinal in 1995 when he was allegedly told about a priest who had abused boys at a U.S. school for the deaf decades earlier. The lawyers withdrew the case last year and the Vatican said it was a major victory that proved the pope could not be held liable for the actions of abusive priests.   

Benedict is currently not named specifically in any other case. The Vatican does not expect any more but is not ruling out the possibility.   

"(If he lived anywhere else) then we might have those crazies who are filing lawsuits, or some magistrate might arrest him like other (former) heads of state have been for alleged acts while he was head of state," one source said.   

Another official said: "While this was not the main consideration, it certainly is a corollary, a natural result."   

After he resigns, Benedict will no longer be the sovereign monarch of the State of Vatican City, which is surrounded by Rome, but will retain Vatican citizenship and residency.


REUTERS