UNITED KINGDOM
Aljazeera
The Roman Catholic Church is still choosing self-preservation over full disclosure in child sex abuse cases, according to a report mapping the phemonenon of clerical paedophilia.
A 48-page document, published on Wednesday by the UK-based charity Child Rights International Network (CRIN), said there were still no global guidelines to directly deal with the welfare of the victims and that serious cases were not being sent to civil judicial authorities, despite decades of allegations and controversy.
CRIN director Veronica Yates said: “Child sexual abuse in religious institutions is one of the worst crimes ever committed against children.
“Our research shows that allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have been made in every corner of the world, yet the Holy See continues to harbour perpetrators of abuse, obstruct justice for victims and deny accountability.”
The report was published before a UN Committee on the Rights of a Child (CRC) meeting in Geneva on Thursday that will question a Holy See delegation on issues of transparency, access to justice for children and protection from violence in the church.
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