Vatican Envoy Questioned at U.N. Over Response to Abuse, by Nick Cumming-Bruce, New York Times (May 5, 2014)

GENEVA — The Vatican faced sharp questioning by a United Nations panel on Monday about its response to the sexual abuse of children by priests and whether it was consistent with the church’s obligations under an international treaty against torture.

Appearing before a United Nations panel for the second time this year, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative in Geneva, immediately found himself at odds with members of the Committee Against Torture over the Holy See’s view that it is responsible for applying the treaty only to the few hundred inhabitants of the Vatican City state.

That position was countered in February by a United Nations child rights committee, which accused the Roman Catholic Church of putting its reputation and interests ahead of those of children and said the Holy See was also responsible, as the supreme power of the church, for ensuring implementation through individuals and institutions placed under its authority.

The Committee Against Torture had never encountered an attempt by a state party to the treaty to limit its application to only “a subdivision” of itself, the panel’s vice chairwoman, Felice D. Gaer, said. The church’s limited interpretation of its obligations left “important gaps” in the coverage of the treaty — known formally as the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment — and was not consistent with its purpose, she said.

“The purpose of the convention is not being implemented in full,” she said.

Pope Francis announced the formation of a commission in December to advise on sexual abuse. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, briefing journalists over the weekend, said the panel would issue clear and effective protocols that would hold accountable senior clerics and officials who did not report suspected abuse.

Victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy are skeptical of these initiatives. They have said the Roman Catholic Church, far from tackling sexual abuse, has sought to stall investigations and has often been complicit in enabling abuse by pedophile priests by keeping them in positions in which they are in contact with children.

“The Holy See has consistently sidestepped real accountability and serious reform,” the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, acting on behalf of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said in a submission to the United Nations panel. It noted that a set of guidelines issued by bishops in Italy this year and approved by the Vatican “explicitly states they are not required to inform law enforcement authorities if they suspect a child has been sexually assaulted.”

“Pope Francis and the bishops are not taking action that would protect children,” Barbara Blaine, head of the survivors’ network, told journalists in Geneva on Friday, calling at a minimum for removal of priests involved in abuse. “These simple acts would protect hundreds of thousands of children across the world.”

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said last week that moves to link the child abuse scandal to the issue of torture were a “deceptive and forced” effort by nongovernmental organizations “with a strong ideological character.” He warned that United Nations conventions risked losing their authority and “being reduced to tools of ideological pressure.”

Appearing before the panel, Archbishop Tomasi took a different position, acknowledging the treaty as “a valid and suitable instrument for fighting against acts that constitute a serious offense against the dignity of the human person” and describing sexual abuse as a global problem that must be addressed.

“There has been a stabilization and decline in cases of pedophilia,” he told the panel. “The church has to do its own cleaning of the house, and it has been doing it for the past 10 years.”

In two hours of tough questioning on Monday, however, panel members firmly pursued the issue of accountability for sexual abuse. Ms. Gaer asked how many times church officials had reported allegations of abuse to civilian authorities, pressing Archbishop Tomasi to provide details when the hearing resumes on Tuesday on the number of such cases and where they occurred.

The panel “made clear these acts fall well within the definition of torture and that the actions required to prevent, punish and redress torture haven’t been addressed,” Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said after the hearing.

Victims’ rights groups hope the committee’s findings will provide a platform to pursue cases of rape and abuse as torture, an offense under international law that does not have a statute of limitations. “It could really change the way these crimes are dealt with at the national level,” Ms. Gallagher said.