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On Friday, Pope Francisco Bergoglio urged Vatican congregations to act “with determination” against sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic clergy, the Holy See said in a statement, the pope’s first public pronouncement on the topic. The Vatican said, referring to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles such cases, after the pope met with its director, “In particular, the Holy Father asked that the congregation … act with determination in cases of sexual abuse”.
The Catholic Archbishop of Durban, Wilfrid Fox Napier, described paedophilia as a psychological “illness, not a criminal condition”. The South African cardinal told the BBC that people who were themselves abused as children, and, then, abused others, need to be examined by doctors. He was one of 115 cardinals who took part in the Vatican conclave that elected Pope Francisco.
Recently, clerical sexual abuse scandals have dogged the Catholic Church. In an interview with the Stephen Nolan programme on BBC Radio 5 Live, Cardinal Napier referred to paedophilia as “a psychological condition, a disorder. What do you do with disorders? You’ve got to try and put them right. If I… as a normal being… choose to break the law, knowing that I’m breaking the law, then I think I need to be punished”. He said he knew at least two priests, who became paedophiles after themselves being abused as children, adding, “Now, don’t tell me that those people are criminally responsible like somebody who chooses to do something like that. I don’t think you can really take the position and say that person deserves to be punished. He was himself damaged”.
Cardinal Napier’s comments triggered immediate criticism. Barbara Dorries, who was abused by a priest when she was a child, works for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, based in Chicago IL. She told the BBC, “If it’s a disease, that’s fine, but it’s also a crime, and crimes are punished, criminals are held accountable for what they did and what they do. The bishops and the cardinals have gone to great lengths to cover these crimes to enable the predators to move on, to not be arrested, and to keep the secrets within the church”.
Michael Walsh, who wrote a biography of late Pope John Paul II Wojtyła, said Cardinal Napier’s remarks were similar to the position once taken by the Catholic Church in the UK and the USA. Mr Walsh told the BBC, “At one time, they actually believed it was a condition that could be dealt with. Many bishops were simply moving priests and trying to disguise the fact that they’d been committing these crimes”. Marie Collins, who was a victim of abuse, told the BBC, “I think it’s appalling that we have a cardinal, a man at this level in the church, that can still hold these views. He’s totally ignoring the child”.
16 March/5 April 2013
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_04_05/Pope-Francis-vows-to-grapple-sex-abuse/
RF Gosduma Ratifies Child Abuse Convention
Tags: Child abuse, Child pornography, Child Welfare, children, Children and Youth, children's rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Council of Europe, Internet Crimes Against Children, Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, paedophilia, Pedophilia, political commentary, politics, Prostitution of children, Russia, Russian, Sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian response, UN, UN General Assembly, United Nations, United Nations General Assembly, United States, USA
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On Friday, The RF Gosduma approved Russia’s accession to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. The convention opened for signing in 2007, and it came into force on 1 July 2010. Russia signed the convention in 2012. To date, 46 states have signed and 26 states have ratified the convention, which sets out international standards for protecting children against sexual exploitation and abuse. The Gosduma also ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography. The UN General Assembly adopted the protocol on 25 May 2000. Russia signed the protocol in 2012. According to the protocol, the signatory countries must stipulate criminal, civil, or administrative penalties for selling children for sexual exploitation, organ transfers for profit, or forced labour, as well as for improperly inducing consent, as an intermediary, to a child’s adoption in violation of the applicable international legal instruments on adoption. These offenses include offering, obtaining, procuring, or providing a child for child prostitution and producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling, or possessing child pornography.
26 April 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130426/180862132/Duma-Ratifies-Child-Abuse-Convention.html
Editor’s Note:
The USA added the following caveat to the Protocol upon its ratification of the instrument in 2002:
That is, the Bush Administration and the Republican Party stated baldly that the ratification of the Protocol added NO additional protection for American children. Sexual predators have “rights”, dontcha know! That’s what “freedom” means for the GOP… along with predatory buccaneer crapitalism, toothless labour laws, mind-boggling greed, and the lightest of tax burdens upon the rich. If you vote for such, that’s what you vote for, full stop. It puts a new face on the posturing moralisers (especially, the smarmy self-righteous Evangelicals), doesn’t it? None dare call it evil… especially, not the well-paid and bovine American news media…
BMD