GENEVA
Catholic Register
BY CINDY WOODEN, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
May 5, 2014
VATICAN CITY – Appearing before a UN committee monitoring adherence to an international treaty designed to fight torture, Vatican officials repeatedly were asked about efforts to investigate allegations of clerical sexual abuse, punish offenders and co-operate with civil authorities in prosecuting the perpetrators.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See representative to UN agencies in Geneva, led the Vatican delegation at the May 5-6 hearing of the Committee Against Torture, which monitors the implementation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment.
The cases of clerical sexual abuse of children are a reality which the Catholic Church wishes never happened, he said, but, “human nature being what it is, they did happen.” What is most important now, he said, is that “there has been in several documentable areas a stabilization and even a decline in cases” of abuse of minors.
“Measures undertaken in the last 10 years on the part both of the Holy See and local churches are bringing about a positive result.”
In his opening remarks to the committee, Tomasi told members that the Holy See, which signed the treaty, has no direct legal and juridical jurisdiction outside Vatican City State. While it hopes to exercise moral influence over all Catholics, “persons who live in a particular country are under the jurisdiction of the legitimate authorities of that country and are thus subject to the domestic law and the consequences contained therein.”
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