A United Nations committee has taken the United States to task for failing to pursue and prosecute clerical sex abusers.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the US to “take all necessary measures to investigate all cases of sexual abuse of children whether single or on a massive and long-term scale, committed by clerics”.
Religion News Service said the US Department of Justice did not return requests for comment, and the National Association of Attorneys General declined to comment. Abuse cases are typically handled by local and state prosecutors, not the federal government.
But David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said efforts to deal with child-molesting clergy were “woefully inadequate”.
“There has been and continues to be too cozy a relationship between religious and governmental figures,” he said. “Other than a handful of local prosecutors, there’s been almost no action at the state or federal level.”
“If even a handful of bishops went to jail for enabling child sex crimes, we believe that would introduce massive reform,” Clohessy said.
However, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the hierarchy does a “huge amount” in order to prevent sex abuse within the Church — much of it learned after the abuse scandal came to light.
“Every diocese is audited every year to see that every year that parishes have safe environment programmes,” she said, “which include educating children so that they are aware of inappropriate contact by an adult, and are encouraged to report anything that makes them uncomfortable to a trusted adult.”
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