UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Releases Report on the Holy See, Finding Child Abuse (January 31, 2014) [1]
On January 31, 2014, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) released a report [3] condemning the inadequacy of the Catholic Church’s response to the sexual abuse of children by its clergy across the globe. According to the news story [4], the CRC was “gravely concerned that the Holy See had not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, and expressed its ‘deepest concern’ about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operated under the authority of the Holy See.” The report called on the Vatican to “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers. Also, it underlined that the Holy See “conduct awareness-raising activities to combat the stigmatization of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse.” Due to a lack of enforcement mechanism for CRC recommendations, the report is non-binding.