The Vatican and the United Nations
The Church is not really repentant of its crimes and its enabling of crimes. In
Ireland both Church and state colluded to manipulate and abuse and even imprison
the people. Nevertheless, the state had to investigate all that as the Church
was not interested.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has required the Roman
Catholic Church to let its archives be opened for an in-depth review of crimes
and concealment of crime. That the Church has not done this though it had the
opportunity for years shows that its tears of repentance are crocodile tears.
While the Church moved abusers priests who were caught out to pastures new to
find new victims and handed nobody over to the police, it was able to get the
mistresses of priests who had their babies to sign agreements not to reveal the
paternity of their children.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has decided that the full
responsibility for the clerical child abuse enabled by the Church lies with the
pope. The Holy See signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which
means that “by ratifying the convention it has committed itself to implementing
the convention not only on the territory of the Vatican City state, but also as
the supreme power of the Catholic Church through individuals and institutions
placed under its authority.”
“The vicar of Christ. . . possesses full, immediate, and universal ordinary
power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.” (Can. 331).
“By virtue of his office, the Roman pontiff not only possesses power over the
universal church, but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all
particular churches and groups of them.” (Can. 333). So the Pope has power over
the whole Church despite the Holy Sees lies that the pope does not have complete
authority over priests and deacons and bishops. If you want to keep your church
open when there is a threat of closure you appeal to the pope. When you want a
dispensation to marry your cousin you appeal to the pope. The pope chooses who
your bishop will be.
Sadly, the courts agree with the Holy See that bishops and priests who abuse
children and break the law in order to protect abusing clergy are employees.
They agree that the pope cannot be dealt a lawsuit for he is a sovereign head of
state. The Vatican has engaged in lots of tricks to avoid being saddled with
litigation that will cost it trillions!
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child stated, “The Holy See
has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the
necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect
children, and has adopted practices and policies which have led to the
continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”
The Vatican was asked by the UN to account for its non-actions in 2000 and it
took it 14 years before it bothered.
From top to bottom, the Church usually refuses to co-operate with judicial
authorities. The few times it did co-operate it had to be forced.
The Holy See has Permanent Observer Status in the General Assembly, United
Nations.
It has used its influence there to prevent women getting access to abortion to
save their lives and to contraception and to prevent measures for dealing with
over-population.
It seems that Church authorities have the right to create and assert their own
doctrines. People are free to affirm these doctrines. Or they can walk away. But
the problem is how the Church tries to force its doctrines regarding morality on
the flock. And even worse, it likes to try and make its moral policy into state
policy thus forcing it on those who are not Catholics as well. Protestant women
in Ireland suffer as well as Catholic women because the Church lies to them to
scare them off abortion. Women die because of it.
The Holy See was required since 1995 by the UN to erase sexism and gender
stereotyping from official documentation and liturgy and in its textbooks. No
explanation has been given as to why this was not done. In fact with the new
Missal the Church is even more sexist.
The Committee demanded that Catholicism amend its teaching that leads to
stigmatisation of innocent people and to grave harm. The Vatican stated that
this was an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of
human person and in the exercise of religious freedom.” The Committee had a
problem with the Church ban on birth-control and homosexuality and abortion even
when it is needed to save a life. The committee requested the Vatican to stop
any interpretations of the Bible which endorse corporal punishment. Many think
the Committee overstepped the mark. But remember this is the United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child. Children sometimes need the option of
contraception and abortion. What if a sickly child is raped and gets pregnant?
What if that child goes to a Catholic counsellor who scares her off having an
abortion? The agonising decision to abort is delayed when the girl has to work
out if it is a sin or not and if she can live with herself for breaking the law
of the Church. That only encourages her to go for an abortion when the child may
even be viable! It is best done earlier with a reasonably clear conscience that
is not interfered with by the teaching of the Church. What if a child labelled
by the Church as a bastard or illegitimate suffers from this label? It certainly
gives bullies an excuse to pick on them. Those who think a line was crossed by
the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child need to ask themselves
if they value children more than religious doctrines. Any enabling of a
religious system that puts children at risk is intolerable. Make the church
change by depriving it of money until it does.
The UN did not attack Church doctrine but the fact that the doctrine was being
used as an excuse for hurting people and denying them equality. Catholicism is
on the rise in poor uneducated nations and for their sake it is important to
decide if the will of a few church leaders should be put before the wellbeing of
innocent people.
“The Committee urges the Holy See to review its position on abortion which
places obvious risks on the life and health of pregnant girls.”
“The Committee is seriously concerned about the negative consequences of the
Holy See’s position and practices of denying adolescents’ access to
contraception, as well as to sexual and reproductive health and information.”
“The Committee also urges the Holy See to make full use of its moral authority
to condemn all forms of harassment, discrimination or violence against children
based on their sexual orientation or the sexual orientation of their parents and
to support efforts at international level for the decriminalisation of
homosexuality.”
“The Committee also urges the Holy See to take active measures to remove from
Catholic schools textbooks all gender stereotyping which may limit the
development of the talents and abilities of boys and girls and undermine their
educational and life opportunities.”
All of these speak of the harm not the doctrines. Also, the Church signed up to
eradicating and preventing and condemning such harm when it signed the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
BAPTISM
If the Catholic Church does not provide for somebody who wants to leave that is a violation of basic human rights. The UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18, says, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."
LESSONS:
The Holy See should be sued by victims.
The Holy See should be thrown out of the UN as a rogue state or as an entity
posing as a state.
The Holy See is irresponsible and religiously fanatical and should not be given
any validation by the United Nations.
Every Catholic is complicit in all that for they are or were the Church and they
pay cash that supports the Vatican or Holy See and its machinations.
APPENDIX: About Pope Francis who did nothing productive so far about the
clerical sex abuse problem, "If Francis were truly radical, he’d have done more
by now to address the blackest stain on the church in modern history. True, he
called the abuse scandal “the shame of the church,” and he struck a commission
in December to investigate the history of abuse. But the remit and composition
of the commission are fuzzy – what is the scope of its powers? Are there any
victims of abuse on it? The fact remains that the church has sheltered and
protected abusers, and tried to shut its doors against outside critics. It needs
to come clean about the extent of its sins. With repentance comes absolution,
after all."
