UNITED STATES
The New York Times
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
FEB. 5, 2014
A United Nations report excoriated the Vatican on Wednesday for failing to live up to international commitments to protect children, finding the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests had been compounded by church policies that allowed abusers to continue to prey on youngsters.
The documented evidence in recent decades shows the finding by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child was a well-deserved judgment, particularly as Vatican officials continue to insist the many thousands of cases of child rape and abuse by clergy were a matter outside their domain and best left to the discretion of local civil authorities.
The United Nations panel went to the heart of the matter in rejecting the church officials’ claims that they were responsible for enforcing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child only within the geographical limits of Vatican City and not globally through their power over the Roman Catholic diocesan hierarchy.
In practice, this policy fed the pattern of cover-up by local church officials who sent abusers to other parishes and ducked the obligation to notify civil authorities of crimes. Since it was the Vatican that ratified the children’s rights convention, it is responsible for ensuring its provisions are followed down to the parish level, the report said.
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