UNITED STATES
Independent Catholic News (UK)
Posted: Saturday, February 8, 2014
NCR assesses Vatican abuse report | Tom Reece SJ, UN committee report on the Rights of the Child, National Catholic Reporter.
Fr Thomas Reese SJ gives a thorough assessment of the UN committee report on the Rights of the Child in his blog published in the National Catholic Reporter on 7 February. Fr Reese writes:
The UN committee report on the Vatican’s role in sexual abuse was a missed opportunity. It could have played an important role in improving the church’s handling of sexual abuse; instead, it was an editorial screed.
Any examination of the sexual abuse crisis needs to do three things: 1) Review the historical facts of sexual abuse and how it was handled by the church; 2) examine current policies and procedures and how they are being enforced; and 3) make recommendations for improvement.
The report by the UN Committee on the Rights of Children, like many other examinations of the crisis, skips the hard work of step two, which means the recommendations in step three are meaningless.
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