U.N. Panel on Torture Presses Vatican Envoy on Abuse (Video)

Photo ~ Archbishop Silvano Tomasi argued the Holy See only has to apply an international treaty against torture to the inhabitants of the Vatican City state.

GENEVA — The Vatican faced sharp questioning by a United Nations panel on Monday about whether it failed to abide by an international treaty against torture in its response to the sexual abuse of children by priests

In the hearing, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative in Geneva, immediately found himself at odds with members of the panel, the Committee Against Torture, over the Holy See’s view that it is responsible for applying the treaty only to the few hundred inhabitants of the Vatican City state.

Video

Another United Nations panel, on the rights of children, rejected that argument in February, saying that the Vatican’s responsibility for carrying out human rights treaties extended to every person and institution under the Roman Catholic Church’s authority around the world. The children’s rights committee accused the church of putting its reputation and interests ahead of those of children.

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