GENEVA
The Star
BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY
GENEVA (Reuters) – United Nations child protection experts grilled Vatican delegates on Thursday on how Roman Catholic officials handled the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by priests that Pope Francis called “the shame of the Church”.
The officials, called to account for the first time since the Holy See signed the U.N. children’s rights charter in 1990, argued that the Church recognised the problem and had drawn up clear guidelines to protect children from predator priests.
But members of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child and abuse victims attending the session in Geneva demanded far more transparency on a scandal that has hounded the Church for more than two decades in countries from Ireland to Australia.
“The view of committee is that the best way to prevent abuses is to reveal old ones – openness instead of sweeping offences under the carpet,” Kirsten Sandberg, chairwoman of the 18-strong U.N. committee, told the Vatican delegation.
“It seems to date your procedures are not very transparent.”
Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which has 15,000 U.S. members and 4,000 foreign members since being launched 25 years ago, said the Vatican response fell far short of what victims wanted.
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