Child Molestation of the RCC

Molestor -87

Catholics seek UN action against Vatican

By William M. Reilly

From the International Desk
Published 5/8/2002 9:20 PM

NEW YORK, May 8 (UPI) -- A coalition of Catholic abuse victims, legal experts and liberal Catholic groups accused the Vatican of violating the 1980 Convention on the Rights of the Child and called Wednesday for the U.N. committee monitoring the treaty to hold the Vatican accountable for the coverup of church sex abuse cases.

However, the United States is not a signatory to the treaty and is not monitored. Any compliance monitoring would have to be handled in reviews of the Holy See, a treaty signatory and an official U.N. observer, or a third country where abuses have been recorded, committee rapporteur Judith Karp told United Press International. Somalia is the only other non-signatory.

The campaign presented its accusations and call for action to Karp, the deputy attorney general of Israel, who was acting as an individual and not as a member of the committee.

"This will help us," Karp said, explaining the campaign would pave the way for a dialogue with involved nations. "We are studying these reports," she said. "We can have a dialogue on the basis of these reports."

Campaign organizer and Catholics for a Free Choice President Frances Kissling said the action was taken to coincide with opening day of the U.N. Special Session of the General Assembly on Children.

Karp said since the United States is not part of the process, documentation of cases and evidence in other countries could be presented to members of the committee reviewing compliance with the treaty. There are 192 signatories to the accord and upward of 150 of them have been reviewed at least once.

An amendment is in the works to speed up the process, she said.

The committee has addressed such issues as the sexual exploitation of children and the recruitment of children as soldiers in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"I am very impressed by this group, that the group will carry the (responsibility) to enhance the protection of children from this type of abuse," Karp said of the coalition. "The committee doesn't have the knowledge as such of this type of abuse so it is very dependent on national and international non-governmental organizations."

The campaign was launched in a hotel a couple of blocks from U.N. headquarters where the three-day special children's session had just gotten under way.

Alleging violations of the treaty, campaigners demanded the Vatican issue a full report on the magnitude of the abuse, issue concrete plans to ensure future abuse does not occur, and sought recommendations to the Vatican's legal system to provide protection and due process for abuse victims.

They also called a public apology by the Holy See during the special session on children.

"We come to the United Nations because there is no sign that Catholic bishops or the institutional church are prepared to deal with this problem in a definitive way that will end pedophilia in the church," Kissling said. "The only thing that seems to work with the church is external pressure from civil authorities. The United Nations has the ability to address this global crisis and we expect it to do so."

A CFFC report released Wednesday, "Clergy Sexual Abuse: Out of the Shadows," analyzes the law, policy and practices of the Holy See and shows that it is in violation of the principles and standards of the convention regarding basic health and welfare of children, special protection measures and measures of implementation, Kissling said. The report draws on documented cases of alleged abuse and deliberate coverups by church officials.

"People are angry at priests who engaged in the sexual abuse but we are enraged at cardinals and bishops who had the power to stop it," said Joseph Gallagher Jr., co-founder of the Coalition of Concerned Catholics in Boston, explaining why the campaign came to the world organization.

"Instead of stopping the abuse, cardinals and bishops allowed it to continue, aided and abetted it, and showed compassion for the perpetrators that they never showed for the victims," he told reporters at the launch.

Gallagher said he was a member of St. Julia's, the last parish where convicted priest the Rev. John Geoghan was assigned.

"My children came into close contact with him, but we knew nothing of what had occurred," said Gallagher, a father of six. "Only later, when we understood the complicity of the church leaders, did we realize we had to act."

Simon Kennedy, an attorney in Ireland who has tried cases of Catholic clergy sexual abuse in Ireland, spoke of how the papal nuncio in Ireland invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid civil prosecution.

"I just find it difficult to believe that an emissary of an associate member would invoke an immunity provision in order to contest its right not to explain itself over its failure to act in accordance with all of the charters -- let alone its beliefs -- to which it encourages others to aspire, promote and promulgate."

The campaign moves to Geneva for the May 20 meeting of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Kissling said. A petition statement is being circulated worldwide by the participating organizations and on the Internet at www.catholicsforchoice.org.