UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release Thursday May 21, 2014
Statement by Barbara Blaine, SNAP President, bblaine@SNAPnetwork.org, +1 312-455-1499 (office), +1 312-399-4747 (cell)
On Friday, a second United Nations panel will release a new report that looks at Catholic officials’ handling of rape and sexual violence by clergy. This time, the UN Committee Against Torture will issue its findings as to whether Catholic officials are violation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment.
But it has now been 12 weeks since another United Nations panel released a lengthy report about the church’s on-going clergy sexual violence and cover up crisis. That panel made 22 recommendations on how Vatican officials can better implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
As best we can tell, every Catholic official is ignoring every one of those recommendations. That is shameful.
We expect on Friday, when the U.N. Committee Against Torture issues its new report, that apologists for the Catholic hierarchy will question the panel’s judgment, perhaps even its motives. We hope we are wrong.
But if that happens, we hope citizens and Catholics will look at these claims by church officials with great skepticism. The Catholic hierarchy has long tried to evade responsibility for and deflect attention from its long-standing and devastating wrongdoing by attacking those who expose clergy sexual violence and cover ups.
[Convention on the Rights of the Child]
The Committee Against Torture questioned Vatican officials earlier this month about widespread sexual violence.
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