The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child not only accused the Vatican of allowing children to be abused by priests, it also urged it to revise its teachings on abortion, contraception, sex education and homosexuality.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi
FoxNews.com is reporting that the Committee “accused the Vatican Wednesday of ‘systematically’ adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on pedophiles and bishops who concealed their crimes.”
These recommendations were submitted after subjecting Holy See to a grueling day-long interrogation last month on its implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which the Holy See ratified in 1990.
While it’s concluding recommendations called upon the Vatican to enforce rules for reporting abuse to police and to support laws that allow victims to report crimes even after the statute of limitations has expired, it also insisted that the Church change its teaching on moral issues.
“The committee also urged the Vatican to amend its canon law to identify circumstances where access to abortion can be permitted for children, such as to save the life of a young mother,” Fox reports. “It urged the Holy See to ensure that sex education, including access to information about contraception and preventing HIV, is mandatory in Catholic schools. It called for the Holy See to use its moral authority to condemn discrimination against homosexual children or children raised by same-sex couples.”
The Vatican responded by expressing regret that the committee is attempting to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human person and in the exercise of religious freedom.
As Fox points out, this is especially egregious because the Committee boasts member countries such as Syria which has been known to poison it’s children; Uganda which regularly forces children into the armed forces, and; Thailand which is internationally known for its child sex trade.
Austen Ivereigh, coordinator of Catholic Voices, a church advocacy group, told Fox the report was a “shocking display of ignorance and high-handedness.”
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, head of the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations in Geneva, told Vatican Radio that he believes non-governmental organizations which favor gay marriage probably influenced the committee to reinforce an “ideological line” in the report.
Click here to defend the Holy See!
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
