Vatican Decision to Rebuff Un's Abuse Inquiries a Serious Misstep

By Charles Lewis
The National Post
December 4, 2013

http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/12/04/vatican-decision-to-rebuff-uns-abuse-inquiries-a-serious-misstep/

Pope Francis attends his weekly audience in St. Peter's square on December 4, 2013 in Vatican City. Cleaning up sexual abuse was declared a top priority by Pope Francis after he was elected head of the Roman Catholic Church in March

The BBC is reporting that the Vatican has rebuffed a United Nations request for information concerning sexual abuse.

The Vatican, the report says, insists that the only valid jurisdictions are the ones where the alleged abuse took place.

“The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child put a wide-ranging questionnaire to the Holy See — the city state’s diplomatic entity — last July, asking for detailed information about the particulars of all sexual abuse cases notified to the Vatican since 1995,” the BBC reported.

“The questions included whether priests, nuns and monks guilty of sexual crime were allowed to remain in contact with children, what legal action had been taken against them, whether the Church required clergy to report abuse to secular authorities and whether complainants were silenced.”

As the BBC story notes, cleaning up sexual abuse was declared a top priority by Pope Francis after he was elected head of the Roman Catholic Church in March.

The Vatican maybe technically right on this. It is in the same vein that they give legal autonomy to the world’s bishops and their dioceses.

However, maybe being right in this case is not being smart. I do not think for a minute that the Church is still trying to hide sex abusers and I do believe they are sincere in that effort. Nor do I think a bloated bureaucracy such as the UN, whose many members have no love for the Church or Christianity, is the best suited.

But these days the Vatican needs all the good PR it can muster. Cooperating in this case would not have done any harm but it would have shown a zealous resolve to provide clarity.

Critics of the Vatican, even some Catholic critics, see the hierarchy as a boy’s club whose main purpose it to protect its own and obfuscate when it suits. That to me is blind bigotry. But the Vatican is doing itself no favours by rejecting this inquiry.

Pope Francis has already done a great job of throwing open the windows of the Church. A decision to cooperate with the UN would have been another step in that important direction.



Contact: clewis@nationalpost.com