UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For now, Vatican officials will not face criminal charges
ICC prosecutor may reconsider with ‘new facts or information’
SNAP: “We’ll keep bringing forward proof of church complicity”
A prosecutor at the International Criminal Court has determined that, for now, no charges will be filed against top Catholic officials for “crimes against humanity.” But victims of clergy sex abuse say they’ll continue to collect evidence and “build the record” of “ongoing child sex crimes and cover ups” by bishops across the globe and are confident the ICC will eventually investigate and prosecute the church hierarchy.
In September 2011, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and CCR, the Center for Constitutional Rights, filed a formal, 71 page complaint –– supported by more than more than 22,000 pages of supporting materials – with the ICC.
The complaint charges four Vatican prelates – Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, former Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, former Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith head Cardinal William Levada and the now-retired Pope Benedict – with “enabling and concealing sexual violence worldwide.”
In April 2012, in a separate filing, the groups submitted several thousand more pages of documentation to the ICC.
But in a two page letter, dated May 31, the prosecutor’s office says some of the alleged (offenses) do not meet the “preconditions of the court” and thus “do not appear to fall within the (court’s) jurisdiction,” though the office may reconsider this decision in light of “new facts or information.” In the letter, the prosecutor suggests that SNAP also consider approaching courts in individual countries.
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