Struts: validation.xml não encontrado

Olá pessoal, estou usando o validation e validator-rules.xml do struts, porém, ao iniciar o Tomcat recebo a seguinte exception:

2009-09-09 10:26:02,493 [ERROR] [ActionServlet] Parsing error processing resource path /WEB-INF/validation.xml
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
	at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
	at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(PlainSocketImpl.java:333)
	at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(PlainSocketImpl.java:195)
	at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:182)
	at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:519)
	at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:469)
	at sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(NetworkClient.java:157)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(HttpClient.java:382)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(HttpClient.java:509)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.<init>(HttpClient.java:231)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:304)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:316)
	at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getNewHttpClient(HttpURLConnection.java:817)
	at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(HttpURLConnection.java:769)
	at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.connect(HttpURLConnection.java:694)
	at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:938)
	at java.net.URL.openStream(URL.java:1007)
	at org.apache.xerces.readers.DefaultReaderFactory.createReader(DefaultReaderFactory.java:149)
	at org.apache.xerces.readers.DefaultEntityHandler.startReadingFromExternalEntity(DefaultEntityHandler.java:767)
	at org.apache.xerces.readers.DefaultEntityHandler.startReadingFromExternalSubset(DefaultEntityHandler.java:566)
	at org.apache.xerces.framework.XMLDTDScanner.scanDoctypeDecl(XMLDTDScanner.java:1139)
	at org.apache.xerces.framework.XMLDocumentScanner.scanDoctypeDecl(XMLDocumentScanner.java:2145)
	at org.apache.xerces.framework.XMLDocumentScanner.access$0(XMLDocumentScanner.java:2100)
	at org.apache.xerces.framework.XMLDocumentScanner$PrologDispatcher.dispatch(XMLDocumentScanner.java:831)
	at org.apache.xerces.framework.XMLDocumentScanner.parseSome(XMLDocumentScanner.java:381)
	at org.apache.xerces.framework.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:1081)
	at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1572)
	at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.parseModuleConfigFile(ActionServlet.java:738)
	at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.initModuleConfig(ActionServlet.java:687)
	at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.init(ActionServlet.java:333)
	at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:212)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1139)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:966)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:3956)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4230)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1014)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:736)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1014)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:448)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:700)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:552)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:295)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:433)
2009-09-09 10:26:02,503 [INFO ] [[/intranetbvf]] Marking servlet bvfServlet as unavailable
2009-09-09 10:26:02,503 [ERROR] [[/intranetbvf]] Servlet /intranetbvf threw load() exception
javax.servlet.UnavailableException: Parsing error processing resource path /WEB-INF/validation.xml
	at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.handleConfigException(ActionServlet.java:769)
	at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.parseModuleConfigFile(ActionServlet.java:743)
	at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.initModuleConfig(ActionServlet.java:687)
	at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.init(ActionServlet.java:333)
	at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:212)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1139)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:966)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:3956)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4230)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1014)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:736)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1014)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:448)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:700)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:552)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:295)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:433)

Já tentei mudar as versões dos jars do struts e nada aconteceu. O plugin está configurado corretamente no struts-config, que está apontando corretamente para o lugar onde os arquivos estão armazenados.

Navegando pela internet encontrei alguns tópicos sobre o assunto mas as poucas soluções que encontrei não deram certo.

Vocês tem alguma idéia de como resolver, ou alguém que passou por isso tem alguma alternativa?

Grande abs.