UNITED STATES
National Secular Society (UK)
Posted: Fri, 07 Feb 2014 11:08 by David Clohessy
After hearing the UN’s scathing attack on its child abuse record, the Vatican’s counter-attack against its critics is a familiar tactic, argues David Clohessy
Inadvertently, by their comments over the past day, Vatican officials are essentially proving what a UN panel has concluded: that the Catholic hierarchy is not reforming its handling of clergy sex crimes and cover ups.
For decades, when abuse and cover up reports surface, many church officials “shoot the messenger” and divert attention. Vatican staffers are doing that now.
One of them, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, attacks the motives of 21 independent children’s experts who volunteer to serve on a respected United Nations panel, calling them “ideological” and implying they are deceitful (The report, he claims, “appears to have been written before (Vatican) representatives even had a chance to tell their side of the story…”
He also says that “the report in some ways is not up to date” even though the panel met with Vatican officials just last month (and spent hours quizzing both abuse victims and Vatican staffers).
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.