GENEVA
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
JOHN HEILPRIN AND NICOLE WINFIELD
GENEVA — The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, May. 06 2014
The Vatican released comprehensive statistics for the first time Tuesday on how it has disciplined priests accused of raping and molesting children, saying 848 priests have been defrocked and another 2,572 given lesser sanctions over the past decade.
The Vatican’s United Nations ambassador in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, revealed the figures during a second day of grilling by a UN committee monitoring implementation of the UN treaty against torture.
Tomasi insisted that the convention applied only inside the tiny Vatican City state. But he nevertheless released statistics about how the Holy See has adjudicated sex abuse cases globally, and significantly, he did not dispute the committee’s contention that sexual violence against children can be considered torture.
Tomasi said that since 2004, more than 3,400 credible cases of abuse had been referred to the Vatican, including 401 cases in 2013 alone. He said that over the last decade, 848 priests had been defrocked, or returned to the lay state by the pope. Another 2,572 were sentenced to a lifetime of penance and prayer or some other lesser sanction, which is often used when the accused priest is elderly or infirm.
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