GENEVA
National Catholic Register
by Edward Pentin Monday, May 05, 2014 2:55 PM Comments (1)
The Holy See was grilled by the U.N. committee on torture today and, as expected, it came in for some harsh and extrinsic criticism for the Church’s handling of clerical sex abuse cases.
In the two-hour hearing in Geneva, the Committee Against Torture launched a barrage of questions to the Vatican delegation, asking about past policy decisions, the juridical distinction between the Holy See and Vatican City, and information on specific cases, according to Reuters.
But many of the questions went beyond the boundaries of the U.N. Convention against Torture. The Holy See also signed up to the Convention on grounds that it would apply only to the territory of Vatican City, not the wider Church.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N. in Geneva, said while the Holy See can be a moral force, the “agent of justice” for crimes committed by Catholics was the local state where the crime was committed. “It should be stressed, particularly in light of much confusion, that the Holy See has no jurisdiction … over every member of the Catholic Church,” he said in opening remarks.
But as this committee is heavily influenced by NGOs ideologically opposed to the Church’s teaching, this important caveat was brushed aside by some members of the panel. The committee’s chief rapporteur, Felice Gaer of the United States, told the Vatican delegation that its position “seems to reflect an intention for a significant portion of the actions and omissions of Holy See officials be excluded from consideration by this committee, and this troubles us.”
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