AUSTRALIA
International Business Times
By Sounak Mukhopadhyay | August 22, 2014
The Vatican refused to submit criminal documents to the child abuse royal commission. The files in question are those of Australian priests accused of child sex crimes. According to the Vatican, it was “neither possible nor appropriate” for an Aussie churchman to be involved in such alleged activities.
The Vatican cited reasons like church investigations to back its claim that Australian priests could never have been involved in sex crimes. It also argued that the internal working files exclusively belonged to the Holy See. According to Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican may be more interested in providing specific case files rather than handing over every file related to such allegations. He said that the Vatican did provide documents of around 5,000 pages after requests for specific files had been made.
The royal commission earlier sent a letter to the Vatican, asking for necessary documents related to child sex related cases. “It is essential that the royal commission understand the nature and extent of the communications between those congregations and the Holy See in relation to child sexual abuse complaints about Australian clerics,” it said. Pell said that the Vatican would not hand over “internal working documents of another sovereign state.” He said that it was “unreasonable” for the royal commission to ask for documents related to child sex related charges.
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