GENEVA
Times of Malta
The United Nations watchdog on torture urged the Vatican yesterday to cooperate with civil authorities in prosecuting all cases of suspected sexual abuse by paedophile priests and to set up its own individual complaints mechanism.
Rape and sex crimes can amount to torture or cruel treatment and the Vatican must prevent and punish such abuses, the UN Committee against Torture said. It had already found that sexual abuse amounted to torture in some 50 countries, officials said.
“The Holy See says sexual abuse is not torture. Well, sexual abuse, including rape, can be torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” Felice Gaer, a committee member, told Reuters TV. “We say whether it’s cruel treatment or torture depends on the facts of the case.”
It was the second time this year that a UN human rights body has criticised how Roman Catholic officials have handled the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by priests.
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