Holy See representative admits that it 'gets it' at last

From today's Guardian

The Vatican has come under intense pressure from a United Nations panel to explain its handling of clerical sex abuse as representatives of the Holy See were questioned on the global scandal for the first time at length and in public.

International experts from the UN's committee on the rights of the child grilled a delegation from the Holy See, which is regarded as a sovereign state, on Thursday, as victims of sexual abuse by priests flew in to Geneva to watch the highly unusual proceedings.

As the hearing got underway, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See's envoy to the UN, made it clear that there was no excuse for violent or exploitative behaviour towards children. "Such crimes can never be justified, whether committed in the home, in schools, in community and sports programs, in religious organisations structures," he said.

But he kept to the line that the Holy See was distinct from the global Catholic church and had little jurisdiction in countries beyond the Vatican city state. The guidelines already put in place by the Holy See and Catholic churches around the world had, "when properly applied", presented a way of eliminating the scourge of abuse, he said.

However, he added that the Vatican would welcome any suggestions from the UN committee that would assist it in ensuring "efficient implementation" of reforms.

Those suggestions – and with them a torrent of questions relating to the Catholic church's response, past and present, to the scandal – were not slow in coming.

Experts interrogated the Holy See on many issues, including on what they said was a lack of transparency in its handling of abuse cases and their aftermath; often insufficient punishment of abusers and inadequate co-operation with civil judicial authorities.

Questioned about an instance from 2001, when Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, a then-senior Vatican official, praised a French bishop, Pierre Pican, for not reporting a priest in his diocese who had raped a boy to civil authorities, Charles Scicluna, former sex crimes prosecutor for the Vatican and auxiliary bishop of Malta, indicated that this was an area on which the Holy See knew the approach had to change.

Pointing out that the example was from more than a decade ago, he said: "The Holy See gets it. Let's not say 'too late' or not. There are certain things that need to be done differently."

He added: "It is not a policy of the Holy See to encourage cover-ups."

The delegation's appearance in Geneva was a mandatory part of the Holy See's duties as a signatory of the UN convention on the rights of the child, which it ratified in 1990. The build-up to the hearing was already hit by controversy when, in December, the Holy See refused to provide detailed information requested on abuse cases and specific information concerning their handling and investigation, citing confidentiality norms.

On Thursday, as the panel began a day of questioning, it showed little sign of wanting to indulge the delegation. One expert asked specifically about the Vatican's handling of two cases that have caused particular embarrassment to the church: one from the past, that of the sexual scandals of the disgraced Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, and another which is ongoing, concerning Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the former apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, to the Dominican Republic. Wesolowski was recalled to Rome this summer after facing accusations of abusing teenage boys.

Another expert focused on why in the past abusive priests were simply moved from one parish to another and often allowed to have more contact with children.

"I think this type of practice needs to be ceased," she said, adding that the Holy See needed to tackle the entire problem "in a more comprehensive and complete way".

In their remarks, both Scicluna and Tomasi said the Catholic church was keen to become "an example of best practice" in the sphere of child protection. They said that changes – including a set of guidelines unveiled in 2011– provided a framework for effective handling of the problem.

Last month Pope Francis announced the establishment of a new committee to fight clerical sex abuse, a direct result of consultation with cardinal advisers from outside the Vatican.