Un Warns Vatican to Hand over Sex Abuse Files to Police

By John Bingham
Telegraph
May 23, 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/10852617/UN-warns-Vatican-to-hand-over-sex-abuse-files-to-police.html

The United Nations anti-torture watchdog has ordered the Vatican to hand over files containing details of clerical sexual abuse allegations to police forces around the world amid concerns over the use of “diplomatic immunity” to hamper investigations.

Members of the UN Committee on Torture also warned the Holy See against effectively allowing suspected paedophiles to seek sanctuary in Rome, after calls for a former Papal ambassador to be extradited to his native Poland to face investigations.

In a highly critical report, published in Geneva, it questioned attempts by the Vatican to claim that its obligations under international law only apply within the tiny city state.

It ordered the Vatican to use its authority over the Roman Catholic Church worldwide to ensure all allegations of clerical abuse are passed on to the secular authorities and impose “meaningful sanctions” on any Vatican officials who fail to do so.

And it voiced “regret” at a lack of openness by the Vatican about its co-operation with civil authorities in sexual abuse investigations.

The report comes after senior officials sought to distance the Vatican legally from the wider church, which has been riven with allegations of child abuse dating back decades, saying priests were not legally tied to the Vatican but fell under national jurisdictions.

But the committee insisted that officials of the Holy See - including the Pope’s representatives around the world and their aides - have a responsibility to monitor the behaviour of all under their “effective control”.

It said it is up to the Vatican itself, rather than simply local dioceses, to ensure suspected abusers are suspended and, specifically, that they are not simply transferred.

In making an explicit link between Rome and the wider church, the report is likely to aid victims attempting to bring legal action against the Vatican.

In contrast to a separate report by the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child, it praises efforts by Pope Francis to bring the perpetrators of historic abuse to justice, including reforms of the Vatican’s penal code and the establishment of what amounts to a ministry of child protection.

But among areas of concern, it singles out the case of Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the former Papal Nuncio to the Dominican Republic who was recalled to Rome last year amid claims he sexually abused children in the slums of Santo Domingo.

The report points out that Poland has requested his extradition but the Vatican insists he is now under investigation there.

“The Committee is concerned that the [Holy See] did not identify any case to date in which it has prosecuted an individual responsible for the commission of or complicity or participation in a violation of the Convention,” it said.

It urged a “prompt and impartial” investigation into the Archbishop and “any other persons” suspected of abuse, adding: “If warranted, the State party should ensure such persons are criminally prosecuted or extradited for prosecution by the civil authorities of another State party.”

Since 2001 all cases of clerical sexual abuse have been referred to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict.

But the committee voiced alarm at claims that it has refused to share information with national authorities and singled out reports that documents recently passed to an inquiry in Australia had previously been withheld on grounds of “diplomatic immunity”.

“The [Holy See] should take effective steps to ensure the provision of information to civil authorities in cases where they are carrying out criminal investigations of allegations of violations of the Convention perpetrated by Catholic clergy or acquiesced to by them,” the committee concluded.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: “The Committee are entirely justified in making this point; failure to do so does not bring these perpetrators - or those who abetted them - to justice and potentially leaves the window open for further abuse.

“It is also a further abuse of those violated by these perpetrators.”

A Vatican spokesman welcomed the report, adding: “These observations recognise that the Holy See has made many serious and substantial reforms on its procedures that further advance the principles and objectives of the Convention Against Torture.”