AUSTRALIA
The Australian
GERARD HENDERSON THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 08, 2014
PEDOPHILIA is now regarded, in the West at least, as the vilest of crimes. So much so that most pedophiles are regarded as more evil than most murderers. Yet there appears to be a different approach to the perpetrators of such wrongdoing according to whether he (and it is invariably a male) is a believer or a secular type.
The message out of Geneva this week was one of absolute condemnation of the Catholic Church and its leadership in the Vatican. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child delivered a scathing rebuke concerning how the Holy See has handled allegations of sexual abuse by its priests and religious brothers over the years.
The UN panel even went to the extraordinary length of criticising the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality.
This is an improper intervention by the UN in an area outside its mandate. Membership of the Catholic Church is voluntary and no one is compelled to follow the teachings of the Pope. Moreover, unlike certain parts of the Islamic faith, there are no penalties for acts of apostasy by Catholics. Indeed, some of the church’s most vocal critics are former or disillusioned Catholics and they are not threatened by death or injury. Child abuse is a crime, obviously. Catholicism’s approach to abortion, contraception and homosexuality is a mere belief, which is shared by some other religions.
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