ROME (ITALY)
Crux
January 31, 2019
By Claire Giangravè
A United Nations Committee for the protection of minors questioned the Italian government last week about clerical sexual abuse in the country, expressing concern over laws that protect predator priests from criminal charges.
“We are saddened by the lack of information regarding sexual abuse against minors by Catholic clergy, and we are concerned by the information we have received that points to numerous clerical abuse victims,” said Spanish Professor Jorge Cardona, a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, during a Jan. 22-23 hearing.
Representatives of the Italian government were asked to answer questions before the committee at the UN’s High Commissioner in Geneva regarding the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Recommendations drawn from the hearing will be issued by the UN on Feb. 7.
This was hardly the first time the UN panel has taken an interest in the Catholic Church’s record on child sexual abuse.
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