GENEVA
Catholic News Service
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Appearing before a U.N. committee monitoring adherence to an international treaty designed to fight torture, a Vatican official insisted that, over the past 10 years, the Catholic Church has “in a systematic, constructive and effective way,” worked to prevent clerical sexual abuse of minors and assist victims.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, told the Committee Against Torture May 6 that the sexual abuse of children “is a worldwide plague and scourge” that the Vatican, national bishops’ conferences, religious orders and individual dioceses have worked seriously to eliminate within the Catholic Church.
While the archbishop mentioned “some divergence of opinion” about whether child sexual abuse legitimately falls under the concern of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, he answered the committee members’ questions about Vatican efforts to investigate allegations against clergy, punish offenders and cooperate with civil authorities.
The Holy See signed the international treaty in 2002 and submitted its first report on adherence to the treaty in 2012. The committee met in Geneva in late April and in May to review the reports of the Holy See and seven other countries. The committee hearings were live-streamed on the Internet.
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