[effenseshoora]

Not sure which laws you mean ... China has laws that anyone who is a bishop of the Catholic church is to be executed, unless they are a bishop of the 'Chinese' Catholic church, the bishops who are appointed by the government not the pope. This is basically the exact argument that the West faced wrt investiture. The entire Catholic church in China is underground.

I don't see how it makes sense to subject prelates in China to the legal system there, when the legal system will execute them for exercising their office as a bishop.

This is part of my concern. England has a terrible history with regards to respecting religious freedom, so I also don't see why the Catholic priests should be tried there by the local laws.

The vatican is free to make up his own rules within its state territory. You might want to reread the concordat. On some issues, yes, but not others. This has nothing to do with Vatican City vs Italy, but everything to do with priests and bishops abroad serving their parishes and episcopies. One of the rights accorded to priests within the Catholic church is the right to an ecclesiastical trial by his peers, but this is voluntary. The Church will not force anyone to accept this, but anyone who chooses not to do this, will be left to deal with the secular authorities. So any priest who is getting tried by the secular authorities has already chosen not to seek the ecclesiastical trial.

It also shouldn´t be a problem for a worldly jury to impose a sentence in which the convicted person first serves a prison sentence and then is extradited to vatican state territory. International law is pretty much against someone convicted for a crime in one country, getting convicted after serving his time by another country. This is why they have extradition - to decide where the crime will be tried. The real question is, who has jurisdiction? England or the Vatican? For the laymen, England, I would argue for the priests, the Vatican. Now, if, as in this case here, the issue is Church officials lying about the abuse that did occur - they've abused the same privilege that protected them, and therefore they shouldn't be protected.

Jesus talks to his disciples about paying taxes as ordinary citizens should do, And where does Jesus say that his disciples ought to be tried by local authorities? Jesus was executed unjustly by the local authorities. Paul appealed all the way up to Rome as his right as a Roman citizen, to be tried by their laws, and not the local laws.