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The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child was unsparing in its criticism of the Vatican for its handling of clergy sexual abuse cases, but in its report issued earlier this month the panel overplayed its hand.
The committee monitors compliance with the U.N. Convention of the Rights of the Child, an international agreement that the Holy See ratified in 1990.
Not only was the tone of the Feb. 5 U.N. report tantamount to a public scolding, but in its zeal to indict the Vatican for maintaining a “code of silence” on abuse and accusing it of adopting policies that allow abuse to continue, the panel paid almost no attention to the policies instituted under Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis to address this critical issue. And attention that was paid was halfhearted, at best.
Like, for instance, the new international commission to promote child protection and prevent abuse established by Pope Francis in December. It doesn’t go far enough was the U.N. panel’s grudging observation.
Moreover, after spending a full day Jan. 16 questioning two top Vatican officials—who spoke about recent policies and practices to combat clergy sexual abuse of minors—the committee’s report did not appear to have taken that testimony into account.
It’s no wonder that some are wondering whether the report was already written before the Vatican representatives even had a chance to present their case.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican observer to U.N. agencies in Geneva, said in his testimony, for instance, that the Church recognizes abuse of children as both a crime and sin, and that the Vatican is promoting policies that, “when properly applied, will help eliminate the occurrence of child sexual abuse by clergy and other church personnel.”
That didn’t seem to faze the committee members, whose report imperiously insisted, among other things, that the Church revise its Code of Canon Law—the set of rules and principles that govern the Catholic Church—to reflect the panel’s views. The committee, for example, wants canon law to mandate that bishops and religious superiors around the world report suspected cases of sexual abuse to civil authorities, even in countries where civil law does not require such reporting.
The Vatican does, in fact, say that Church law requires bishops and superiors to obey local laws on reporting suspected crimes.
But such points as noted above, whether or not they’re well taken, at least arguably fall within the U.N. committee’s mission of protecting the rights of children.
The committee did not stop there, however. Veering way off course, the committee waded deeply into the culture wars with the absurd assertion that the Church and its teachings contribute to the social stigmatization of and violence against homosexual adolescents and children raised by same-sex couples; it also brazenly urged the Church to change its teachings on abortion and contraception.
These stunning declarations undermine the entire U.N. report by exposing a cultural-political agenda, and by blatantly seeking to interfere with and dictate the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
The members of the U.N. committee who approved this report should be ashamed of themselves.
