UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register
by BRIAN FRAGA 02/12/2014
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, told the Register in an email this week that a U.N. committee issued a “rather negative” report on the Catholic Church’s steps in recent years to protect children.
Archbishop Tomasi also told the Register that the committee apparently does not understand the nature of the Catholic Church. He said he was surprised that a U.N. committee tried to teach theology to the Holy See.
On Feb. 5, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, an 18-member treaty body designated with monitoring the implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, issued its “concluding observations” that criticized the Holy See for its handling of the international clergy sex-abuse crisis.
The committee said it was “gravely concerned” that the Holy See did not take “necessary measures” to address the crisis and protect children. The committee also accused the Holy See of adopting policies and practices that led to the continuation of clergy sex abuse and shielding of predator-priests.
Those criticisms followed a Jan. 16 public hearing in Geneva, where some members of the committee actually praised the Holy See for the steps it had taken over the past decade to prevent sex abuse and protect children.
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