UN asks Vatican: Child abuser clergymen must be removed

BBC Online :The UN has demanded that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers. The UN watchdog for children’s rights denounced the Holy See for adopting policies allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of children.In a report, it criticised Vatican attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion.The Vatican responded by saying it would examine the report – but also accused its authors of interference.”The Holy See takes note of the concluding observations on its reports… [but] does, however, regret to see… an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human person… [and] reiterates its commitment to defending and protecting the rights of the child,” it said in a statement.The Vatican has set up a commission to fight child abuse in the Church.The UN committee’s recommendations are non-binding and there is no enforcement mechanism.In its report, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the Holy See should open its files on members of the clergy who “concealed their crimes” so that they can be held accountable. The committee said it was gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed.In the report, the committee expressed its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.It also lambasted the “practice of offenders’ mobility”, referring to the transfer of child abusers from parish to parish within countries, and sometimes abroad.The committee said this practice places “children in many countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children”.