Un Rips Vatican: You Failed Kids, Saved Sex Abusers

By Matt Cantor
Newser
February 5, 2014

http://www.newser.com/story/181808/un-rips-vatican-you-failed-kids-saved-sex-abusers.html

Pope Francis meets bishops at the end of his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

(Newser) – The United Nations is hammering the Vatican for what a panel calls a failure to fully address sex abuse in the Catholic Church. "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 Committee on the Rights of the Child says, per the New York Times. The Vatican "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 church "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," the panel says. Leaders must "immediately remove" priests linked to child abuse. The Vatican, the BBC notes, has denied UN requests for records on the abuse; church officials say they only release the information when a government seeks it in a legal case. The Vatican has argued that civil officials should be the ones to prosecute abuse, but the panel says the institution has sidestepped those authorities.