GENEVA/VATICAN CITY
Washington Post
U.N. panel blasts Vatican handling of clergy sex abuse, church teachings on gays, abortion
By Anthony Faiola, Wednesday, February 5
BERLIN — A United Nations committee on Wednesday issued a scathing indictment of the Catholic Church’s handling of child sexual abuse cases involving clerics, releasing a report that went far beyond how the church managed abuse allegations to include criticism of its teachings on homosexuality, gender equality and abortion.
The scope of the report appeared to infuriate the Vatican — which had dispatched its top official on sexual abuse to appear before a U.N. committee in Geneva last month. Vatican officials said they were still studying the findings, but responded angrily to what they described as recommendations that were ideologically biased.
“Trying to ask the Holy See to change its teachings is not negotiable,” Silvano Maria Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer at the United Nations in Geneva, told Vatican Radio.
At a time when the Vatican has been riding a wave of positive publicity surrounding Pope Francis, the report once again shone a spotlight on the single largest stain on the Catholic Church’s global image: Its handling of allegations of sexual abuse by clerics.
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