Scathing Un Report Demands Vatican Act against Sex Abuse

Voice of America
February 5, 2014

http://www.voanews.com/content/scathing-un-report-demands-vatican-act-against-sex-abuse/1844754.html

Kirsten Sandberg, chairperson of the U.N. human rights committee on the rights of the child, talks during a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 5, 2014.

[with video]

A United Nations human rights committee has made an unprecedented demand that the Vatican "immediately remove" all clergy accused of child abuse and turn them over to civil authorities.

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child on Wednesday called on the Holy See to acknowledge sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children and hand over its archives on the subject, adding that “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog's exceptionally blunt paper - the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body - followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

 “The Committee 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 sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report said.

The Vatican was expected to issue a statement on the report later on Wednesday.

The committee said it is "gravely concerned" that the church has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken necessary measures to address such cases, and has adopted policies that permit the continuation of such practices with no consequence.

Pope Francis in December created a commission to investigate all reported cases of such abuse.

Abusers had been moved from parish to parish or other countries “in an attempt to cover-up such crimes,” it added.

“Due to a code of silence imposed on all members of the clergy under penalty of excommunication, cases of child sexual abuse have hardly ever been reported to the law enforcement authorities in the countries where such crimes occurred,” the U.N. body said.

At a public session last month, the committee pushed Vatican delegates to reveal the scope of the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests that Pope Francis called “the shame of the Church”.

The Holy See's delegation, answering questions from an international rights panel for the first time since the scandals broke more than two decades ago, denied allegations of a Vatican cover-up and said it had set clear guidelines to protect children from predator priests.