The Wrong Rebuke, The Economist - Erasmus, February 5, 2014

The Wrong Rebuke

The Economist - Erasmus
February 5, 2014

http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/02/vatican-and-child-abuse

People all over the world who abhor the unspeakable horror of child abuse will generally be pleased to read that a United Nations committee has excoriated the Vatican for the crimes of the past and the continuing failure of the Holy See to tackle those crimes or prevent their recurrence. The UN committee charged with implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child has published a report saying it is

"....gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators..."

The report rejected attempts by the Vatican to limit its responsibility for the behaviour of Catholic agencies round the world; the Holy See must be held to account for misdeeds in all countries, given its role in exercising "the supreme power of the Catholic church through individuals and institutions placed under its authority," it said. The committee also implies that the church is continuing to hide behind its own legislative system—canon law—to condone abuse. It singles out the church's failure to investigate and punish the abuses suffered by Irish girls in the Magdalene laundries, a form of workhouse that was run by Catholic sisters until 1996.

The report also raises a ragbag of other issues, effectively urging the church to make sweeping changes to its own doctrine. It says canon law should be amended "with a view to identifying circumstances under which access to abortion services can be permitted" for girls, and it notes with concern the Holy See's "past statements and declarations on homosexuality which contribute to social stigmatisation of and violence against LGBT adolescents and children raised by same sex couples."

There are no words strong enough to denounce the abuse and exploitation of children, and many will commend the report for adding its voice to the worldwide indignation over this ghastly phenomenon. But I do not think this report does justice, in any sense, to the subject. It is a rather sloppy document from a little-known bureaucratic agency. In its 16 pages, it leaps from matters over which there is total international consensus (the unacceptability of physically and sexually abusing children) to matters on which there is no such consensus among the world's countries and cultures, such as the appropriate nature of sexual or reproductive education for children. The report's flaws will make it too easy for those who wish to play down the church's responsibility. And indeed the Holy See almost immediately issued a statement insisting on its right to differ on certain ethical questions.

Whatever the appropriate answer may be to the giant moral issue posed by child abuse in the Catholic church, this report is surely not it. Perhaps a committee of really eminent persons should be invited to probe the subject deeply, and stick to the subject.