NIT – The sins of Catholic priests have come with a monumental price, a senior Vatican official told a United Nations panel this week.
The revelations were made by an Archbishop as the panel conducts hearings on compliance by the Vatican on the UN treaty against torture.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told the UN panel that the treaty applies only to residents in the tiny Vatican, not priests around the world. According to the New York Times, Tomasi told the panel that in addition to 848 priests defrocked between 2004 and 2013, 2,572 members of the clergy had been disciplined for sexual abuse.
“It should be stressed, particularly in light of much confusion, that the Holy See (Vatican) has no jurisdiction,” he said in opening remarks. “The Holy See intends to focus exclusively on the Vatican City state.”
The Times also reported that Tomasi told the panel that compensation by Catholic dioceses and religious orders to victims since 1950 has amounted to about $2.5 billion.
According to a victim advocacy group monitoring the hearings, “throughout the world, children and vulnerable adults have been and continue to be subjected to widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence by priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican’s policies and practices enable this violence.
“We strongly suspect that, across the globe, hundreds or thousands of child molesting clerics are still raping, sodomizing and assaulting boys and girls today.”
