AUSTRALIA/GENEVA
The Guardian (UK)
Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Wednesday 7 May 2014
Survivors of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy have reacted angrily to a Vatican claim at the UN that the Australian church’s redress scheme is effective.
In Geneva on Tuesday, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, who heads a Vatican delegation appearing before the UN Committee against Torture, referred to the Australian Towards Healing process as an example of the church “responding positively” to victims of abuse, campaigner Nicky Davis said.
Davis, who heads the Australian branch of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said Tomasi was answering questions about the the Vatican’s response to victims when he mentioned Towards Healing.
“It was offered as an example of how the church is responding positively and seemed to imply that it would be a model scheme for other countries,” said Davis, who attended the sessions.
She said Australian survivors were astonished to hear the Vatican holding up the “disgraced” Towards Healing process as an example of the Catholic church properly addressing this issue.
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