UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic World Report
March 22, 2016
Attitudes about how the Church is handling cases of clerical sex abuse are frequently rooted in a misunderstanding of rule of law and evidentiary standards.
Enza Ferreri
Last month Peter Saunders, the British man who founded and leads the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), was removed from the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, “apparently following a 15-0 vote of no confidence.”
The chorus of some mainstream media has been quick to describe this as a sign that the Vatican doesn’t intend to do enough against child sex abuse, or that Pope Francis is failing to do so. However, this attitude of utter condemnation of the Church is misplaced and based, in part, on a misunderstanding of rule of law and evidentiary standards.
I will start with some background on the role that Peter Saunders, NAPAC, and other activists like them have had in events in the UK.
Since 2012, Britain has been shaken by a flood of allegations of child sex abuse, the majority of which go back decades, against important figures in the public eye, both dead and alive. The police have investigated practically all claims, however improbable, and often in the total absence of evidence, launching one operation after another.
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