United Nations’ report on Vatican sparks backlash in US

UNITED STATES
Catholic News Agency

Washington D.C., Feb 6, 2014 / 12:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- U.S. Catholic leaders criticized a United Nations committee report for trying to impose secular moral views and failing to acknowledge advancements made by the Church in the area of child protection.

Austen Ivereigh, founder of Catholic Voices, an organization of lay faithful who defend the Church’s teaching in the public sphere, called the report “ignorant and misguided.”

He said that it “betrays an extraordinary misunderstanding of the nature of the Church and the Holy See” while seeking to “impose an ideology of gender and sexuality in violation of the U.N.’s own commitment to religious freedom.”

In a blog post analysis on Catholic Voices’ website, Ivereigh responded to a report issued Feb. 5 by the U.N. Committee on the Protection of the Child, which claimed that the Vatican “systematically” adopted policies allowing priests to rape and molest children.

The report also criticized the Catholic Church’s teachings on contraception, abortion and same-sex “marriage,” suggesting that the Church change its canon law to support these “rights.” …

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.), himself a Catholic, said the U.N. report “has overreached in its efforts to discredit the Catholic Church’s core teachings.”

While the report serves as a legitimate reminder of the essential obligation to protect children, he said, it also seeks “to make political statements about Catholic doctrine on abortion, contraception, and marriage.”

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