Vatican hits back at UN committee for abuse report

The Vatican struck back today at a UN human rights committee that issued a scathing report on sex abuse by priests, accusing it of straying beyond its mandate and discrediting the UN as a whole by adopting the "prejudiced" positions of anti-Catholic advocacy groups.
The Vatican said the UN committee had ignored both the Holy See's unique status and its efforts to address the abuse crisis in recent years, noting that it had provided this information to the committee in writing and in person. It blasted what it called the "absolutely anomalous" publicity the committee gave its report and promised a full response at a later date.

The Geneva-based committee on Wednesday accused the Vatican of systematically placing its own interests over those of victims by enabling priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children through its own policies and code of silence.
It recommended the Vatican immediately remove any priest suspected or known to have abused children, open its archives on abusers and the bishops who covered up for them, and turn the cases over to law enforcement.
The Vatican was taken completely off-guard by the severity of the report and, slow to respond, issued a series of increasingly critical and articulated responses that culminated with today's lengthy statement by the Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, on Vatican Radio.

The report was issued by an 18-member panel of independent UN experts who monitor implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which among other things calls for signatories to protect children from harm and ensure that their basic rights to education and health care are guaranteed.