Holy See Representative at Un Expresses Surprise at Accusations by Child Rights Committee

Vatican Insider
February 5, 2014

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/tomasi-onu-31838/

The Vatican answers back to the UN

 “The initial reaction was one of surprise.” It seems as though the report was prepared before the meeting with the Holy See delegation which gave detailed answers on a number of points.” The Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva, Bishop Silvano Tomasi did not hide his dismay at the concluding report published today by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The report claims that the Holy See is continuing to violate the rights of children.

Vatican Radio interviewed Tomasi.

“There is a need to read and analyze the recommendations proposed by the committee calmly and in detail, “Tomasi said. “But our initial reaction is one of surprise because the negative tone of the document produced makes it seem as though it was prepared before the Committee’s meeting with the Holy See delegation, during which clear responses were given on a number of aspects. There was no mention of these in the concluding document or at least they don’t appear to have been taken into consideration.”

The Vatican diplomat went on to say that “it seems as though” the document “has not been updated according to what the Holy See has done in the past years, with measures introduced directly by the Vatican City State and then by the Episcopal Conferences of the various different nations.” The document therefore “does not offer a correct or up-to-date picture of the situation, as a number of changes have been made to ensure the protection of  children; it seems to me that changes of this kind are difficult to find in other institutions and State. These are simply the facts, it is evidence which cannot be distorted.”

Mgr. Tomasi defined some of the comments made in the concluding report as “incorrect”. we need time to reflect carefully on the conclusions and recommendations of the committee and to prepare an adequate response, so that the objective may really be pursued. The Holy See is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and intends to faithfully carry out all the elements of this Convention for the protection of children, without adding or imposing any ideological elements that deviate from the Convention itself.”

Here the bishop was referring to the sections of the document where the Holy See is asked to review its teachings in the fields of abortion and family. “For example, the introduction of the Convention on the Protection of Children talks about the defence of life and the protection of children before and after they are born and yet the Holy See is advised to change its position on abortion! Of course when a child is killed it no longer has rights! So this seems to me to hugely contradict the fundamental objectives of the Convention, which are all about the protection of children.”

“This Committee has not served the United Nations well as it has attempted to introduce and ask the Holy See to change its non negotiable teachings! So it is a bit sad to see that the Committee has not fully grasped the nature and functions of the Holy See which made it very clear to the Committee that it intended to implement the Convention’s recommendations on the rights of the child, giving primary importance to defining and protecting those fundamental values that ensure the real and efficient protection of children.”

“The introduction to the concluding report recognises that the responses received were clear; no attempt was made to avoid any of the Committee’s requests based on the available information. Where information was not immediately available” the Holy See “promised to provide it at a later date, in accordance with the Holy See’s directives, as applies to all governments. So it seemed like a constructive dialogue and I think it should remain as such. So looking at the impression formed after the direct discussions the Holy See delegation had with the Committee and then at the conclusions and recommendations in the concluding report, one is tempted to think that the text had probably been prepared earlier and does not – apart from in some notes that were hastily added in - reflect the input and clarifications that came later.

“So we have to explain the Holy See’s position and answer any questions that remain unanswered calmly and based on the evidence at hand, because we have nothing to hide! And this, in order to ensure the fundamental objective here and that is the protection of children,” Bishop Tomasi said. “At the same time we have to keep in mind that even though there are so many millions, forty million cases of abuse a year regarding children and unfortunately some cases affect also Church personnel. We have to keep in mind that, we have to continue to combat this tragedy knowing that even a case of abuse of a child is a case too much.”

At the end of the interview the Vatican diplomat suggested that the UN Committee may have been influenced by someone: “Some NGOs that support homosexuality, same-sex marriage and other issues probably presented their own views and ended up reinforcing their line of thought in some way,” Tomasi said.