U. N. PANEL SAYS VATICAN IS LAX OVEER ABUSIVE PRIESTS

U.N. Panel Says Vatican Is Lax Over Abusive Priests

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and LAURIE GOODSTEINMAY 23, 2014

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GENEVA — The Vatican on Friday faced criticism from a United Nations panel for the second time this year over failures to report priests accused of sexually abusing children to civil authorities or to ensure redress for victims.

The panel, which is monitoring the Holy See’s compliance with an international treaty prohibiting torture, called on the Vatican to “take effective measures” to monitor the behavior of individuals under its control and prevent abuse.

In a statement, the Holy See said the Committee Against Torture had not found it in violation of the treaty, which prohibits torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
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Panel members bluntly contradicted that assertion. The committee makes recommendations when it sees states that are not living up to the requirements of the convention, and had issued eight pages of recommendations to the Holy See over what it said were its failures in preventing abuse, investigating accusations and compensating victims, Felice Gaer, the committee’s vice chairwoman told reporters in Geneva.
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Claudio Grossman, the chairman of the Committee Against Torture, spoke during a press conference at a United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday. Credit Martial Trezzini/KEYSTONE, via Associated Press

“You have the answer in front of you,” she said.

The 10-member committee welcomed guidelines issued by the Vatican’s disciplinary body instructing church authorities to cooperate with civil authorities but expressed concern that they continued to “resist the principle of mandatory reporting.” The committee cited the case of Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the papal envoy to Australia who invoked diplomatic immunity last year in refusing to provide documents that could assist a commission of inquiry into sex abuse.

The committee rejected the Holy See’s core defense, that it has jurisdiction only over priests and personnel inside its walls in Rome.

Stefano Gennarini, legal director of C-Fam, a research group that supports the Roman Catholic Church at the United Nations, said: “The committee hasn’t really backed down at all from its position that somehow the Vatican is responsible for the actions of every priest in the world. They don’t understand that the only power the Vatican has outside the walls of the Vatican city-state is a spiritual and moral power.”

The Vatican faced many of the same criticisms earlier this year when it appeared before another United Nations panel monitoring its compliance with the international convention on children’s rights.

The committee on torture on Friday noted a number of recent reforms introduced by the Vatican, including Pope Francis’s creation of a Commission for the Protection of Minors in December and the 2011 guidelines instructing church authorities to report allegations of clerical sexual abuse to civil authorities where required by law. It also welcomed a law adopted by the Vatican City State last year setting out a definition of torture described by the chairman of the panel, Claudio Grossman, as “a role model” and an example of “very important, positive developments.”

But the committee expressed concern over numerous reports that church authorities had transferred priests accused of abuse to other dioceses, helping them to escape investigation and prosecution, allowing them to remain in contact with children and, in some cases, leading to further abuse.
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The panel cited the specific case of the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, who was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year old girl in Minnesota and returned to India, where he is facing an extradition application by the United States. It also referred to the case of Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, who has been accused of sexual abuse in the Dominican Republic. The archbishop was transferred to the Vatican, where officials say he is under investigation but have resisted applications for his extradition to Poland, his native country.

The committee recommended that the Holy See set up an independent complaints mechanism ensuring confidentiality for victims of abuse that is empowered to cooperate with civil authorities where the abuse occurred. It also urged the Vatican to ensure that investigators of abuse “are independent, with no hierarchical connection.”

The committee voiced further dissatisfaction on how the church has handled redress for victims.

Pamela Spees, senior staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which submitted a report to the committee on behalf of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said, “It’s a report that victims and survivors and advocates can use to try to have these crimes taken seriously and dealt with more effectively by national judicial systems, whether in the criminal context or to advocate for more reforms and protections.”

Advocates for victims said that the report’s finding that the abuse of children amounts to torture will help victims who are now prevented from pursuing their cases in court when the crimes occur beyond the statute of limitations. In many countries, there are statutes of limitations on sexual abuse, but not on torture. However, several legal experts said in interviews that the report would have little impact because it is only advisory. At most, they said, the report might have a persuasive effect on judges on a case-by-case basis.

Appearing before the panel earlier this month, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative in Geneva, disclosed that since 1950, Catholic dioceses and organizations in the United States had paid out more than $2.5 billion to victims of abuse.

But in its concluding remarks the committee drew attention to the difficulty many victims have had obtaining any compensation. It cited particular concern over reports that church authorities had authorized or acquiesced in actions by church officials to protect assets from being seized by civil authorities in order to provide redress.

“There are countries where victims did not get anything,” the panel’s vice chairman, George Tugushi, said.

The Holy See, in its response to the panel’s observations, said charges related to moving clergy members to evade discipline and failures to provide compensation were “part of the past.” It said that it “takes note and will give serious consideration to the recommendations made.”

Nick Cumming-Bruce reported from Geneva, and Laurie Goodstein from New York.

A version of this article appears in print on May 24, 2014, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: The Vatican: Criticism From U.N. Panel.