ROME
Irish Times
Paddy Agnew
There was widespread reaction in Rome, in Ireland and across the world to the report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
In Rome, the Holy See issued a statement rejecting the Geneva committee’s attacks on Catholic teaching in the area of sexual mores.
“The Holy See . . . regrets to see in some points of the concluding observations an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human person and in the exercise of religious freedom,” it said.
The UN watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should hand over its archives on sexual abuse so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable. Photograph: Tony Gentile/ReutersReputation of church ‘placed above children’s best interests’
“The Holy See reiterates its commitment to defending and protecting the rights of the child, in line with the principles promoted by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and according to the moral and religious values offered by the Catholic Church.”
‘Discriminatory’
Paragraph 25 of the committee’s report complains about the use of “discriminatory” language such as illegitimate children. It also argues that church teaching can lead to “the social stigmatisation of and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adolescents and children raised by same-sex couples”.
Lobby groups for victims of clerical sex abuse said the UN body’s findings supported long-held opinions.
In Ireland, One in Four said: “The report contains a scathing critique of the Catholic Church’s attempts to cover up the extent of the sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy and its failures to report incidents of abuse to civil authorities. This report by an international neutral body confirms what has long been suspected: that the Vatican had a far greater knowledge of the extent of clerical sexual abuse than it has ever acknowledged.”
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the report was “a devastating critique of systemic child protection failures by the Vatican”, and called on the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, to indicate what action would be taken “to ensure that these shortcomings are rectified”.
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