san francisco (ap) | A federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit brought by survivors of the Holocaust in Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia who allege the Vatican Bank accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers.
The Vatican Bank, the financial arm of the Roman Catholic Church, denies allegations that during World War II it stored the looted assets of thousands of Gypsies, Jews, Serbs and others who were killed or captured by the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime that controlled Croatia.
A federal judge had dismissed the 1999 case, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said this week the survivors should have their day in court in an effort to be compensated for their monetary losses, and to be given an accounting of what money, if any, the bank received from the Ustasha regime.
A lawyer for the survivors and their beneficiaries said the decision — plus the appointment of a new pope — could lead to an out-of-court settlement.
In reinstating the case against the Vatican Bank, the appeals court overruled a lower court judge who said the lawsuit was barred because it could upset “governmental negotiations and diplomacy” toward resolving claims originating from World War II.