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	Organizations React to Vatican's New Set of Norms By Kellie Bramlet Lubbock Avalanche-Journal July 15, 2010 http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/kellie-bramlet/2010-07-15/organizations-react-vaticans-new-set-norms The Vatican issued a new set of norms Thursday. In the document, the ordination of women as priests was classified as a "grave crime" to be handled by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, just as sex abuse is. NPR reports that "At a briefing Thursday, (Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor) said that including the two canonical crimes, sex abuse and ordination of women, in the same document was not equating them but was done to just codify the most serious canonical crimes against sacraments and morals that the congregation deals with." In response, Women's Ordination Conference (WOC) Executive Director Erin Saiz Hanna issued a statement declaring the decision "appalling, offensive, and a wake-up call for all Catholics around the world." Also on Thursday, the head of a United Nations panel told the Associated Press the Vatican has failed to send the United Nations a report on child rights that is now almost 13 years overdue. The AP reports "Like all countries that have signed the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Vatican is required to submit regular reports on its efforts to safeguard child rights. But the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, despite sending repeated reminders, has received no explanation from the Holy See for why it missed a 1997 deadline, according to the committee's chairwoman Yanghee Lee."
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