VATICAN CITY — AVN first reported on investigations looking into charges that priests were sexually abusing altar boys and other child congregants in the early ’90s, and since then, dozens of clergy have been convicted of such abuse, and several dioceses have had to pay out millions of dollars in damages to their now-grown victims. But according to the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), it’s not enough-so the group has filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to hold those priests’ boss-the Pope-responsible for the Catholic Church’s years of inaction.

According to the Religion News Service, besides Pope Benedict XVI, the SNAP complaint also names former Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano; current Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone; and Cardinal William Levada, a former archbishop of San Francisco who, the article notes, ‘now has jurisdiction over abuse cases as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.’

‘Crimes against tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, are being covered up by officials at the highest level of the Vatican. In this case, all roads really do lead to Rome, ‘ saidPam Spees, Senior Staff Attorney for the Center […]