(Transcript from World News Radio)
Australian advocacy groups for victims of sexual abuse have thrown support behind a United Nations report, accusing the Vatican of falling far short of its commitment to stem abuse by priests.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says tens-of-thousands of children worldwide had been abused systemically for years within the Catholic church, and little has been done to redress the wrong doings.
Abby Dinham reports.
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The Vatican has been told to immediately stand down all clergy within the Catholic Church who have been suspected of involvement in child sexual abuse.
"The Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of perpetrators above children's best interest."
Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Kirsten Sandberg says the Vatican has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed by Catholic clergy, and has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children.
"Another matter was the code of silence that was imposed by the church on children and the fact that reporting to national law enforcement authorities has never been made compulsory. We think that it's a horrible thing that's been kept silent both by the Holy See itself and also in the different local parishes."
The report accuses the Catholic Church of covering up the crimes by transferring abusers to different parishes, which it says facilitated the continuation of abuse.
It criticises the Church for dealing with accusations behind closed doors, allowing the vast majority of abusers to escape judicial proceedings.
Ms Sandberg says the so-called "code of silence" imposed on clergy under threat of excommunication, meant that cases were hardly ever reported to national law enforcement authorities.
And that those in the Church who dared to speak out were ostracised, demoted or fired, while some victims were gagged with confidentiality clauses linked to compensation deals.
"They strongly said that their attitudes have changed over the last few years. Let us hope that this is a new beginning for a more open attitude and more co-operation and removing this condition of silence."
The report followed a landmark hearing last month during which members of the committee - made up of 18 independent human rights experts from around the globe - grilled senior churchmen and repeatedly questioned the Vatican's resolve.
Like other signatories of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Vatican agreed to be scrutinised by the panel.
Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Archbishop Silvano Tomasi has told Vatican Radio that the UN report ignored the recent work of the church to address the issue of child sexual abuse by the clergy.
"The first impression is that the report in some ways is not up to date, not taking into account some of the clear and precise explanations that were given to the committee in the in the encounter that the delegation of the Holy See had with the committee three or four weeks ago."
Archbishop Tomasi says criticisms in the report regarding the Vatican's attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion are a farce.
The UN calls on the Vatican to change canon law to ensure children's rights and their access to health care are guaranteed.
But the Archbishop says the church's stance on sex and birth control are unwavering and exercised under freedom of religion.
"The committee asked for acceptance of abortion and this is a contradiction with the principle of life that the convention itself should support recommending that children be protected before and after birth. If a child is eliminated or killed we can no longer talk about rights for this person."
Since 2001, Catholic church abuse cases from around the globe have been dealt with internally by what the Vatican calls its justice department, otherwise known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The UN committee says it had failed to receive data on all cases of child sexual abuse handled by the congregation or the resulting punishments.
Archbishop Tomasi says the church has done its best to safeguard children from abuse, but the measures are not reflected in the UN report.
"The Holy See presented the concrete measures taken both at the level of the State of Vatican City and of the Church at large, taking into account that priests are not employees of the Pope but they are responsible citizens of the countries where they work and therefore accountable to the judicial system of those countries."
Victims of clergy abuse advocate, Wayne Chamley of Broken Rites, says the church still doesn't realise that the era of policing itself has finished.
"They don't seem to realise that those days are over and what's been going on around the world in things like the royal commision in Ireland, and the royal commission in Australia the Victorian inquiry etc, they're being required to come to a process of scrutiny that they can't control and they still don't have the mindset that the days of self examination are over. It's just not acceptable to the public and it's not acceptable to the government."
But Mr Chamley says immediate changes to the way the church handles matters is unlikely as the current group of Archbishops is extremely conservative.
And he says the process of making amendments to canon law is long and difficult.
Mr Chamley says state and federal governments should impose sanctions on the church as service providers - in the hospital, school, and welfare sectors - to force it to take real action on the issue of child abuse.
"There's an opportunity I think for sovereign governments to step in and say if you don't make changes as the UN expects you to make changes we will start to make some changes in the way we deal with you as a service provider so we will maybe not be prepared to accept you to run any businesses and services on our behalf."
