The UN has demanded that the Vatican "immediately remove" all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers.
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| Vatican officials were questioned in December over why the Holy See would not open its files on priests known to be child abusers |
The UN watchdog for children's rights denounced the Holy See
for adopting policies allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of
children.
In a report, it criticised Vatican attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion.
The Vatican responded by saying it would examine the report - but also accused its authors of interference.
"The Holy See takes note of the concluding observations on
its reports... [but] does, however, regret to see... an attempt to
interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human
person... [and] reiterates its commitment to defending and protecting
the rights of the child," it said in a statement.
And a Vatican official, speaking to Reuters
news agency on condition of anonymity, said the statements on
homosexuality, contraception and abortion were outside the committee's
remit and "heavily agenda-driven and smacking of acute political
correctness".
The Vatican has set up a commission to fight child abuse in the Church.
The UN committee's recommendations are non-binding and there is no enforcement mechanism.
In its report, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) said the Holy See should open its files on members of the clergy
who had "concealed their crimes" so that they could be held accountable.
The committee said it was gravely concerned that the Holy See had not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed.
In the report, the committee expressed its "deepest concern
about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches
who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having
been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children
worldwide".
It also lambasted the "practice of offenders' mobility",
referring to the transfer of child abusers from parish to parish within
countries, and sometimes abroad.
The committee said this practice placed "children in many
countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual
offenders are reported to be still in contact with children".
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