The UN Human Rights Committee has accused the Catholic Church of concealing the spread of pedophilia among its ministers, and also expressed its dissatisfaction with the Holy See's attitude to abortion and contraception.
Moreover, the United Nations insists on the removal from service of priests who were somehow convicted of violence against children. The committee expressed its desire to thoroughly familiarize itself with all the data on such incidents involving church clergy. The UN requires that the Holy See provide all available information regarding violence committed by monks, bishops, and priests, and that the Vatican authorities draw up a detailed report on measures against criminals.
These and other requirements of the Human Rights Committee were published in one of the reports of the United Nations, which followed after a special hearing was held at the end of 2013 on the proper implementation by the Vatican of all the conditions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Recall that representatives of the Catholic Church previously refused to provide the organization with the data requested regarding the involvement of certain clergy in violence against minors.
“The Committee is extremely concerned that the Holy See does not realize the full extent of the crimes committed, and does not take the necessary measures to protect children,” the document released today says.
The Children's Rights Committee also states that the Catholic Church hides the identities of pedophile priests and also does not put an end to the case of violence and bullying of children in Irish orphanages in the care of the church. The organization called on the Vatican to conduct a thorough investigation of such cases and punish all those responsible. The American media say the UN has also criticized the Holy See’s attitude toward abortion and homosexuality, calling on the Vatican to reconsider its principles.
The United Nations drew attention to the fact that, according to some sources, the Catholic Church has a carefully organized system, the purpose of which is to hide similar incidents.
Representatives of the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that the Vatican authorities simply refused to provide information requested by the police about cases of pedophilia, which greatly interferes with the investigation of cases and the prosecution of criminals.
The Director of the International Organization for the Rights of the Child noted that the Vatican’s methods of dealing with pedophile clergy do not fully punish the latter. The fact of the matter is that the Holy See practices a policy of “healing by distance,” when ministers of the church who are found guilty of crimes are transferred from one parish to another.
The Catholic Church first admitted problems with pedophilia several years ago, when Pope Benedict XVI was the head of the Holy See. In the spring of 2010, the pontiff regretfully admitted that children under the care of Irish priests were in fact repeatedly subjected to violence and humiliation by his subordinates. Recently it became known that at the end of his papacy, a retired pontiff deprived the rank of several hundred clergymen who were accused of pedophilia.
However, the current head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, who insisted on amending the Vatican Code for amending liability for violence against minors, has achieved the greatest success in combating this problem. By decision of the pontiff, a special commission for the protection of children was also created.
