VATICAN CITY
Irish Times
Paddy Agnew
Mon, May 5, 2014
For the second time in the past five months, the Holy See will this morning find itself “in the dock” at the United Nations in Geneva when it is due to testify before the Committee Against Torture. Last February the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a damning condemnation of the Catholic Church’s handling of its clerical sex abuse crisis, accusing it of being more concerned with protecting its reputation and its abuser priests rather than with protecting children.
With sex abuse victims groups such as US lobby Snap having submitted reports to the Committee Against Torture, the Holy See is bracing itself for more criticism.
While Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi argued last Friday that the convention against torture applied essentially to “criminal legislation, criminal procedure, the prison system and international relations in the legal domain”, Snap said: “Throughout the world, children and vulnerable adults have been and continue to be subjected to widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence by priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican’s policies and practices enable this violence.
“The Committee Against Torture has been clear that rape and sexual violence constitute forms of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”
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