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The Vatican has accused a United Nations committee of sowing confusion in its report on the Holy See’s record on child abuse.
The Vatican released its formal response to a February report by the UN committee on the rights of the child.
The committee concluded that the Vatican maintained a “code of silence” that enabled priests to sexually abuse tens of thousands of children worldwide over decades.
In its response, the Vatican complained that the committee “dismissed or ignored” the measures it had taken to combat abuse.
At the same time though, the Holy See insisted that it is only responsible for implementing a UN child rights treaty in the Vatican City state.
Suggestions by the committee that it was responsible for implementing the treaty in Catholic institutions around the world violates the concept of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, the Vatican said.
Such a suggestion “offers a controversial new approach to ‘jurisdiction’ which clearly contradicts the general understanding of this concept in international law”, the Vatican added.
The “profundity of confusion” sown by the committee over jurisdiction “has led to a grave misunderstanding of the Holy See’s legal obligations under the convention”, the Vatican said.
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