ROME (Reuters) - A leading Catholic newspaper criticized a cut-throat "law suit culture" in the United States on Friday as being partly to blame for the child sex scandal rocking the American Catholic Church.
The full-page article in Avvenire, the newspaper of Italy's powerful bishops, was the third such attack in as many weeks by an influential Catholic publication.
The article, headlined "USA -- A Country in the Hands of Lawyers," appeared to be part of a concerted attempt by Catholic media in Italy to take a stand against American society ahead of next week's meeting on pedophilia by U.S. bishops in Dallas.
It denounced what it portrayed as a legal culture that aimed to win high damages at any moral cost.
America, it said, was enveloped in an "attacking the stage-coach" mentality in which local Roman Catholic dioceses and individual priests had become easy legal prey.
The newspaper, a daily close to the Vatican, suggested it was ironic the pedophilia scandal had received such attention "in a society that spoils children in every way possible but at the same time is aware that it has little respect for them."
The article said child abuse by priests was "horrendous and to be condemned" but that the scandal had whet the appetite of "an army of lawyers, ready to exploit any chance to unleash a million-dollar war of payments for damages."
The scandal erupted in January following evidence the Archdiocese of Boston had moved known pedophile priests between parishes.
The revelation prompted an unprecedented meeting between U.S. cardinals and Pope John Paul at the Vatican.
The scandal has spread across the country. Many priests have been suspended or forced to step down over allegations and some have been charged.
But even before the recent disclosures American Catholic dioceses had paid hundreds of millions of dollars in out-of-court settlements.
Avvenire said while child molestation by priests was "very grave," one had to ask what role "the behavior of a legion of lawyers in a campaign unleashed against the church" had played in the developing scandal.
REALITY VS CELLULOID
To support its assertion the United State was a country "in the hands of lawyers," the paper ran pictures of famous television shows or films with legal themes, such as "Perry Mason," "The Devil's Advocate" and "I am Sam."
Earlier this week, an American Catholic bishops' committee recommended priests who sexually abuse a minor be defrocked in future, but held open the possibility a past offender with only one offence could remain in the ministry.
U.S. bishops will vote on the proposals at a June 13-15 meeting in Dallas.
The Avvenire article follows two pieces in the Vatican-sanctioned Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica about the scandal.
Civilta Cattolica said last month that a bishop in most cases could not be held responsible for child abuse committed by his priests.
Friday's Avvenire article repeated the assertion that the Roman Catholic Church could not be treated like a corporation in which executives were held responsible for damage caused by employees.
It added, however, that "it now appears useless" to invoke this distinction in legal proceedings.