GENEVA
RH Reality Check
by Erin Matson, Editor at Large, RH Reality Check
January 17, 2014
Thursday, representatives from the Vatican went before a United Nations panel to discuss the way the Catholic Church has handled, and covered up, numerous instances of sexual abuse by priests worldwide.
The public record from this hearing, the first time representatives from the Holy See had been subjected to public questioning of this nature, offers little consolation to those who had been waiting for Pope Francis to offer meaningful reforms that might help him live up to his “Person of the Year” designation. Instead, we were given additional reasons to believe that the all-male hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church must not be entrusted to come up with a program that will resolve and redress sexual crimes within its flock. Further, we were given additional reasons to question the Vatican’s role in the international law community.
First, the hearing came a bit overdue. The Vatican ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. After an initial report in 1994, the Holy See did not submit a progress report to the international body until 2012. It’s shocking that those reports and Thursday’s hearing took so long; those 18 years were filled with revelations of sex abuse by priests, associated cover-ups by Vatican officials, and international cries for accountability.
To those who think Pope Francis, the alleged reformer, has it covered, a closer examination of the facts suggests otherwise: It wasn’t until last year that the criminal code was updated to specify sexual violence against children as a crime. Further, a new commission established by the pope to address the crisis of child molestation by priests lacks judicial authority and instead focuses on providing care to victims of abuse—quite a sick idea, given that internal supervision mechanisms from the Vatican have no track record of providing appropriate care, much less justice, for the victims of abuse by Catholic priests.
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