VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio
[with audio]
(Vatican Radio) The Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, has issued a Note to Vatican Radio (of which he is Director-General) regarding the United Nations, the Holy See, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in the wake of the Committee’s Concluding Observations on the reviewed Reports of the Holy See (and five member states that are also parties to the convention).
Fr. Lombardi SJ writes, “It is impossible not to see that the final recommendations of the Committee appear to present – according to the judgment of those, who followed closely the process that preceded them – serious limits,” noting in particular the Observations’ conspicuous lack of understanding of the specific nature of the Holy See – a lack he describes as, “particularly grave.”
The most serious issue with the Observations is found in the Committee’s apparent overstepping of its own purview. “The observations of the Committee,” writes Fr. Lombardi, “seem to go beyond its competencies, and to interfere in the very doctrinal and moral positions of the Catholic Church,” specifically regarding abortion, contraception, family education and other related areas.
Fr. Lombardi SJ stresses that, while the Holy See has been subjected to “unjustly harmful” media attention, it is also true and at least equally important to recognize that the Committee itself has received “serious and well-founded” criticism. He goes on to underline that, while the United Nations organization as such is not responsible for the shortcomings of the Committee, public opinion has assigned the organization the brunt of negative fallout from the Committee’s conduct.
The three-page Note also reviews in detail the Holy See’s history of support for the work of the United Nations, as well as the history of the Holy See’s adherence to and participation in the Convention on the Right s of the Child (the Holy See was one of the earliest adherents to the Convention).
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