UNITED STATES
National Review
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
May 7, 2014
Reading the AP coverage this morning of the ongoing hearings in Geneva regarding the Vatican and torture, the story this morning explains that the Holy See yesterday provided some additional information on what’s happened in the last 12 years — the culture change within the Church to zero-tolerance, where, frankly, priests are considered guilty until proven innocent when allegations are brought up against them. It’s a culture of transparency and independent audits, vetting and vigilance. (Ed Mechmann has a good briefing on the “real story” here, if you haven’t read it already).
The AP notes this but then immediately charges:
But significantly, he didn’t dispute the committee’s contention that sexual violence against children can be considered torture. Legal experts have said that classifying sexual abuse as torture could expose the Catholic Church to a new wave of lawsuits since torture cases in much of the world don’t carry statutes of limitations.
What it leaves out is that after initial testimony from the Holy See and outside groups, more numbers in regard to what’s new in the Church, what is being done differently, how the procedures regarding abuse and initial accusations have changed dramatically, were requested. The new culture was news to some on the committee. How is it that John Hopkins’ Paul McHugh has commented that “Nobody is doing more to address the tragedy of sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church”? As it was described to me, this sounded like good news, forward-looking news, news that could advance the common good. And the Holy See responded with facts to better give a snapshot of this current reality.
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