GENEVA - A U.N. panel sharply criticized the Vatican on Wednesday for putting the reputation and interests of the Holy See above the interests of children who had been sexually abused by priests, effectively allowing priests to continue abuse and escape prosecution.
In a series of hard-hitting observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child said that “the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”
The panel expressed particular concern that “in dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests.”
The criticism came in the concluding observations of a U.N. panel that examined the Vatican’s compliance with the Convention of the Rights of the Child in a hearing last month attended by senior Vatican officials, including Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna, who was the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sexual abuse until 2012.
The panel noted the Holy See’s commitment to upholding the “inviolable” dignity of children but pointed out that it had moved priests well-known as child abusers to different parishes in an attempt to hide their crimes, allowing them and to remain in contact with children and to continue their abuse. In doing so, the Vatican “still places children in many countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children,” it said.
At last month’s hearing, the first time the Vatican had faced public examination by an international body, Scicluna said “the Holy See gets it” that certain things “need to be done differently” but argued that legal action to prosecute and punish abusers was the responsibility of civil authorities.
The panel challenged that position and criticized the Vatican’s lack of transparency in dealing with the issues.
The panel also rejected the Vatican’s contention that it was responsible for implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child only on the territory of the Vatican City. In ratifying the convention it was also responsible, as the supreme power of the Catholic Church, for ensuring implementation through individuals and institutions placed under its authority, the U.N. experts said.
