Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addresses a press conference on the investigation into alleged sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic by foreign military troops during the French military intervention in that country on May 8, 2015. Credit: UN Photo/Violaine Martin

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 12 2015 (IPS)

A rising tide of sexual abuse in U.N. peacekeeping operations has triggered the launch of a high-level campaign to end the continued attacks on women and children and an urgent call for the creation of an independent commission of inquiry.

The latest “horrible” sexual attacks have been attributed to French peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) although U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said they were “not under the command and control of the United Nations.”"The truth is startling and simple: No new mechanisms, no new methods of operation, no new policies can ever work in practice to prevent or punish sex abusers on staff who commit sexual offenses at present, because the U.N. bureaucracy responsible for implementing changes is completely dysfunctional." -- Paula Donovan

“We do hope that anyone who engaged in the atrocious activities involving children in the Central African Republic face justice and are prosecuted,” he told reporters last week.

Paula Donovan, co-director at AIDS-Free World, who helped break the story of a long-suppressed report on sexual abuse in CAR, told IPS: “From confusion and ineptitude on the ground, to cover-ups at the highest levels of the U.N. in New York, Member States must subject U.N. peacekeeping to a rigorous, entirely independent commission of inquiry with complete access to documents and staff.”

Until that happens, any new polices or procedures will fail, just as the current policies and procedures do, in their implementation, said Donovan, a former executive officer at the U.N. Children’s agency UNICEF and regional advisor, East and Southern Africa.

Last year, there were more than 50 cases of sexual abuse at the hands of U.N.-supported field personnel, although the actual number is said to be far higher.

But the existence of diplomatic immunity is said to allow perpetrators to go unpunished and avoid legal constraints.

A longstanding proposal, going to back to 2008, for an international convention to punish those accused of sex crimes in U.N. operations overseas never got off the ground.

But against the backdrop of the current campaign, called Code Blue, the proposal may be revived, even though it could be shot down by developing countries who provide most of the soldiers in the 16 peacekeeping operations currently under way, with an estimated total of 106,595 military personnel and 17,000 civilian staff.

The largest contributors of peacekeepers include Bangladesh (9,307 troops), Pakistan (8,163), India (8,112), Ethiopia (7,864) and Rwanda (5,575), according to the latest U.N. figures.

Asked whether an international convention will deal more effectively with sexual exploitation and abuse by U.N. staff, police and experts on mission (who are currently covered by the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunities), a sceptical Donovan told IPS “jurisdictional issues are incredibly complex in peacekeeping operations.”

“But the truth is startling and simple: No new mechanisms, no new methods of operation, no new policies can ever work in practice to prevent or punish sex abusers on staff who commit sexual offenses at present, because the U.N. bureaucracy responsible for implementing changes is completely dysfunctional,” she declared.

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, international coordinator, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, a programme partner of the International Civil society Action Network, told IPS the proposed convention is long overdue.

“If not now, when?” she asked. “It’s time to close the accountability gap. We have addressed this point in our recent international security sector workshop.”

She said: “I am hopeful about this convention and we will advocate for its adoption and ratification. We, in civil society, are always hopeful—as that is one of our sources of strength amidst growing conservatism among governments and as a result, repression of civil society.

“At the same time, we are also realistic as we have our ears close to the ground. We know what is happening. The information we receive is not filtered—unlike what U.N. headquarters and government missions receive.”

So, realistically speaking, she had doubts that troop contributing countries (TCCs) will actually support such a convention—except maybe the European countries and Canada.

However, these are not the biggest troop contributing countries. The biggest TCCs are in the developing world, she pointed out.

“We should do active lobbying with the big TCCs and show them that the convention will be useful to them—it can serve as a guide for Member States to monitor their troops; and in investigating and prosecuting troops who have committed crimes,” she added.

A 2008 report of the ‘Ad Hoc Committee on Criminal Accountability of U.N. Officials and Experts on Mission’ said “some delegations reiterated the view that it was premature to discuss the possibility of negotiating an international convention on the topic, as had been proposed by the Group of Legal Experts, and as had been subsequently supported by the Secretariat in its note.”

It was argued, the report said, that it was necessary to understand the actual impediments to prosecution, before embarking on the negotiation of a convention.

Some delegations expressed support, in principle, for a convention requiring member states to exercise jurisdiction over their nationals participating in U.N. operations.

The report further added: “It was noted that while bilateral agreements existed in the area, they provided incomplete coverage and did not usually address judicial cooperation between States and the United Nations.”

Cabrera-Balleza told IPS the TCCs should also put themselves in the shoes of the recipient countries. Don’t they want to see accountability if crimes are committed against their own people?

“I am also hoping that this convention would include mandatory training on U.N. Security Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, 1820 and supporting resolutions on women, peace and security (WPS). The TCCs should be mandated to train their troops prior to deployment and debrief using the WPS resolutions as guide after deployment.”

She said the United Nations also has a Conduct and Discipline Unit under the Department of Field Support that maintains global oversight of the state of discipline in peacekeeping operations and special political missions.

“However, I once had a discussion with a Conduct and Discipline Officer in a peacekeeping mission and we asked him if they are integrating UNSCR 1325 in their training and he had no clue what I was taking about,” she said.

The U.N. is committed to a zero- tolerance policy against sexual exploitation and abuse but its Member States are not. The convention will bring some coherence, she declared.

Edited by Kitty Stapp

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.com

Actors Luis Gnecco (left) and Benjamín Vicuña in a scene from “Karadima’s Forest”, a film that portrays pedophile Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, seen here with one of his victims, James Hamilton, his “favourite”, who finally dared to speak out. Credit: Courtesy of Constanza Valderrama

By Marianela Jarroud
SANTIAGO, Mar 20 2015 (IPS)

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Latin America are taking the first steps towards grouping together in order to bolster their search for justice – a struggle where they have found a new ally: filmmaking.

“Besides entertaining us, movies urge people not to forget, to memorise what is happening to us as a society,” Chilean filmmaker Matías Lira told IPS.

He added that, with respect to the sexual abuse committed within the Catholic Church, “the media has a pending task, and society has a duty.”“When they named Pope Francis, we felt that in the Vatican we had someone from home, someone who spoke our own language, who understood our culture; it was an enormous source of pride. But the first victims he met with were from the United State, Germany and Great Britain; he never met with us.” -- Juan Carlos Cruz

Based on this premise, Lira directed “Karadima’s Forest”, based on real events. The film, which comes out in Chile in April, tells the story of a priest who sexually and psychologically abused dozens of boys and young men, and who was one of the country’s most influential priests thanks to his enormous charisma and his reputation as a “saint” – which was even his nickname.

There is great expectation surrounding Lira’s film in Chile, a country with a highly conservative society where 67 percent of the population of 16.7 million identifies as Catholic.

The film comes after “The Club”, by Pablo Larraín, winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in February, which also tackles the question of pedophile priests in Chile.

The case of Fernando Karadima is emblematic. As the parish priest of El Bosque (“the forest”), in the wealthy Santiago neighbourhood of Providencia, the priest forged an empire with the backing of high-level church authorities from the early 1980s until his retirement from his post in 2006.

An ecclesiastical court sentenced him in 2011 to “a life of prayer and penitence” for pedophilia and ephebophilia (a sexual attraction to post-pubescent adolescents), after he spent decades abusing boys and young men who trusted him, while amassing a fortune from donations to the church, according to an investigation by the Centro de Investigación Periodística (Centre for Investigative Reporting).

Journalist Juan Carlos Cruz was one of those youngsters. He met Karadima when he was 15 years old, right after his father died, when he was grieving and vulnerable.

“They recommended that I go and talk to this priest, who was considered a saint, a man of enormous kindness. He was a very influential man and it was incredible when he paid attention to me,” he told IPS.

“He told me that from then on he would be my father, that I had to make my confession only to him, and that he would be my spiritual director,” he added.

Cruz said that at the age of 15 he was dazzled by the priest’s powerful friends: ranging from then dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) to Angelo Sodano, who during the military regime in Chile was apostolic nuncio (1978-1988) and later became the Vatican’s secretary of state (1991-2006), and including businessmen, senior military officials and high-level politicians.

Shortly after Cruz met Karadima – who is now 84 – the priest began to sexually and psychologically abuse him.

“Psychological abuse sometimes is the most complicated: living under constant threat, under his yoke, living in fear and not being able to forgive yourself for it even once you’re grown up,” said Cruz from the United States, where he now lives.

“I consider myself an intelligent guy who has gone far. I’m vice president of a multinational corporation responsible for 130 countries. Nevertheless, I can’t forgive myself for how I let that man torture me for eight years,” he lamented.

Karadima’s horrific abuse came to light in May 2010, when Cruz and other victims recounted what they had suffered on the weekly programme Informe Semanal of the public TV station Televisión Nacional (TVN).

James Hamilton, the priest’s “favourite”, had contacted TVN after seeing a report on that channel about the aberrations committed for years by Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, the founder of the ultraconservative Legionaries of Christ congregation. Maciel had a great deal of influence in the Vatican during the papacy of John Paul II (1978-2005).

Maciel, the most famous pedophile priest in the region, who even had children despite his vows of celibacy, died in 2008, two years after Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013) removed him from active ministry for creating a “system of power” that enabled him to lead an “immoral” double life “devoid of scruples and authentic religious sentiment.”

Advocates of the victims unsuccessfully sought to bring to a halt the beatification of Pope John Paul II, arguing that he systematically covered up the sexual abuse committed by the powerful Mexican priest.

In Chile, Karadima’s victims are now fighting the appointment of Juan Barros as bishop of the city of Osorno. According to Cruz and other victims, Barros witnessed and participated in the abuse by Karadima.

But far from listening to the victims, the Apostolic Nunciature or Vatican embassy confirmed its support for Barros, who became bishop on Mar. 21.

“That support is arrogant and stupid,” Cruz said.

Karadima’s victims also accuse Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, who was named adviser to Pope Francis, Benedict’s successor, of taking part in the cover-up. Several investigations concluded that Errázuriz turned a deaf ear for years to the victims’ complaints, when he was archbishop of Santiago.

His successor, Ricardo Ezzatti, is also accused by Karadima’s victims of helping cover up the powerful priest’s crimes.

This is one of the reasons that prompted the victims of abuses by different priests in various countries of Latin America to meet in mid February in Mexico City to join forces and try to draw attention – mainly the attention of the first Latin American pope, Francis, from Argentina – to the problem.

“When they named Pope Francis, we felt that in the Vatican we had someone from home, someone who spoke our own language, who understood our culture; it was an enormous source of pride. But the first victims he met with were from the United State, Germany and Great Britain; he never met with us,” said Cruz.

“I just want to sit down with him and tell him what we have gone through,” he said.

And that is because, even though he believes the Catholic Church in Latin America covered up the abuse by its priests, Cruz is still a fervent Catholic.

“I go to mass every Sunday,” he said. “I’m not going to let them also steal something so precious as my faith.”

Lira, the filmmaker, is also Catholic, although he said the priesthood “has a great debt to society” in Chile and the rest of the region.

“They should understand that apologising is not enough; what matters is that actions are taken,” he said.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

Human rights groups are calling for the Committee on the Rights of the Child to bring the Mexican state to account, as it has done in other countries, for failing to investigate widespread reports of sexual abuse of minors in Catholic institutions.

Experts consulted by IPS said the lack of action by the Mexican authorities and justice system violated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the Unite Nations General Assembly in 1989 and went into effect in 1990.

“There is a high level of impunity,” Juan Martín Pérez, the head of the Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México (REDIM – Network for Children’s Rights in Mexico), told IPS. “There is clear evidence of collusion between the authorities and the Catholic Church, so cases seldom wind up in court.

“The high-profile cases show the power of the church. It is one of the powers-that-be that is untouchable.

“Protecting children is a duty, at school, in the home, and in church…Usually the excuse is that these are areas of private life,” he said.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which monitors and reports on implementation of the Convention, is made up of 18 independent experts, including two from Latin America – Sara de Jesús Oviedo from Ecuador and Wanderlino Nogueira Neto from Brazil.

Mexico’s fourth and fifth periodic reports were due in April 2011, but were not completed until June 2012. And the combined report does not discuss paedophilia or measures to combat it.

The scandal over sex abuse of children and adolescents by Catholic priests broke out in the United States in 2002 before spreading to European countries like Germany, Ireland and Belgium, and to Latin America, especially Mexico and Chile.

“The state has not taken action and the Church has protected its own, reassigning priests to different parishes without even facing up to the issue or apologising to the victims. The state has never taken a stand on the matter,” Nashieli Ramírez, the coordinator of Ririki Intervención Social, a civil society organisation working with children and teenagers, told IPS.

According to the Mexican bishops’ conference, there are 5,000 seminarians in 145 seminaries and 15,000 priests in Mexico.

The Church leadership in Mexico has stated that it will follow the Vatican’s new guidelines and respect the reforms approved, in order to prevent sexual abuse and penalise the perpetrators.

They were referring to the Jul. 11 announcement by Pope Francis – who is now visiting Brazil – of an overhaul of the laws that govern the Vatican city-state.

The reform of Church law, to take effect in September, stiffened penalties for physical or sexual abuse of children, child prostitution and the creation or possession of child pornography.

In April 2012, the Mexican bishops’ conference approved guidelines to prevent and eradicate sexual abuse in churches. The guidelines are focused on the selection of candidates for the priesthood, taking into account factors like personality, psychology, spirituality and vocation.

In May 2011, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had instructed bishops all over the world to prepare clear procedures to handle cases of abuse, to be implemented by May 2012.

At the 62nd session of the CRC, held Jan. 14 to Feb. 1, 2013 in Geneva, the Committee on the rights of the Child harshly censured the United States for its failure to take action against clerical sex abuse.

“The Committee is deeply concerned at information of sexual abuse committed by clerics and leading members of certain faith-based organisations and religious institutions on a massive and long-term scale and about the lack of measures taken by the state party to properly investigate cases and prosecute those accused who are members of those organisations and institutions,” it said in its observations.

The Vatican has also come under the scrutiny of the CRC, which has asked for information on measures adopted against clerical sexual abuse, to be provided by November.

Ahead of its 65th session, to be held Jan. 13-31, 2014, the CRC has asked the Vatican to “provide detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers and nuns or brought to the attention of the Holy See over the reporting period,” on measures adopted, investigations and legal proceedings against perpetrators, and support for victims.

Children’s rights activists are again blaming the state for negligence, as they did in 2005 in their shadow report to the CRC titled “Infancias mexicanas, rostros de la desigualdad” (Mexican Children: Faces of Inequality).

The report concluded that “information on sexual abuse by priests is not available to those responsible for guaranteeing due process of defence and protection for human rights, particularly of children.”

And it denounced that “the concealment of information by the Catholic hierarchy has hindered victims in filing claims.”

In 2010 the Mexican Congress approved a reform of the Federal Law on the Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, criminalising paedophilia.

The law compels religious organisations to report ministers who sexually abuse children and adolescents, on pain of losing their accreditation.

Experts complain they are still not seeing concrete results from these actions.

“The state must develop mechanisms to protect children and overcome impunity,” Pérez said. “It is important to change civil codes that whitewash sexual abuse, like the offence of statutory rape (sexual intercourse with a minor) where the laws protect the perpetrator rather than the victim and avoid prison sentences. Mechanisms are needed to prevent abuse and to report those responsible for abuse.”

NGOs are preparing their shadow report for the 69th session of the CRC, to be held from May to June 2015, when Mexico is due for evaluation of its official report. The NGOs’ report will include cases of sex abuse by priests.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a support group for victims all over the world, has identified at least 65 priests in Mexico involved in sexual offences, none of whom has gone to prison.

Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square. The Vatican will have until Nov. 1 to respond to the list of demands by the Geneva-based U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Credit: Edgar Jiménez/cc by 2.0

By Lydia Lim
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 18 2013 (IPS)

Mary Caplan was just 14 years old, and her father was dying of cancer. When she went to the local priest in her hometown of Jersey City to ask for prayers and help, he sexually abused her, and went on to do so for the next two and a half years.

“[The priest] told me there was a way that I could have a miracle for my father,” Caplan told IPS. “If I did certain things to him, because he represented Jesus, my father would have a miracle.”“For me, what’s worse than the original abuse is to know that it is still happening. That’s re-traumatising, and just tragic for society." -- Abuse survivor Mary Caplan

The priest continued to abuse her until her father passed away.

“When my father died, I went to the priest and asked, ‘What did I do wrong?’ I reported [the abuse] to the pastor, and he said, ‘That couldn’t be – I must be in deep grief’,” Caplan said.

The Vatican has largely kept mum about cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, despite its signing of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In what was a historic moment for survivors like Caplan, last week, the Geneva-based U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) publicly called for the Vatican’s disclosure of cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy.

The Vatican will have until Nov. 1 to respond to the list of demands, and representatives are expected to meet with the Committee in January to answer further questions.

Caplan, who is now a regional director at the U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), one of the non-profits that works with the U.N. panel to speak out against this sexual abuse, applauded the action.

“We hope that this will prod other secular international organisations to do to the same,” she told IPS.

Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represents SNAP, noted that the list of questions brought forth by the U.N. Committee regarding the systematic practices of the Church were both “necessary” and “most welcome”.

“After hearing the voices of survivors, the Committee came out with such a strong list of questions for the Vatican on the policies that we see at the Church, [such as] shifting priests from one country to another to evade accountability and pressuring survivors to stay quiet,” Gallagher said at a press conference in New York Tuesday.

Megan Peterson, an active member of SNAP, directly witnessed this practice of “priest-shifting”. In 2004 and 2005, she was abused by a priest from India at her church in Minnesota when she was barely a teen – yet the priest fled and the Church stayed silent when she revealed his offences.

“I came forward when he was still abusing me, but was shut down by the church,” Peterson told IPS. “He fled the country when I came forward, and we’re still in the middle of an extradition process.”

Last October, the Vatican, which had long been called to report on the abuses, finally released a report on the U.N. Committee website.

“The Holy See is a sovereign subject of international law having an original, non-derived legal personality independent of any authority or jurisdiction,” the report stated.

“Many bishops believe that the Church is above the law,” said Sally Butler, a nun who works at Catholic Whistleblowers. The U.S.-based group of priests and nuns banded together in May to speak out against the Church’s past and current handling of sexual abuses.

“The [bishops] feel they have to protect the Church, and they’ve taken an oath to that effect,” Butler told IPS. “They take their oath very seriously.”

In response to the Vatican’s report, SNAP and the CCR filed an additional report, “putting in a whole set of facts that the Vatican simply left out” and prompting a more complete list of issues raised by the U.N. panel, Gallagher said.

SNAP’s report noted that experts have estimated that there were as many as 100,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse between the years 1981 and 2005 in the United States alone.

Caplan said that although she is hopeful about the results of the U.N. demands, she is somewhat sceptical because the Church has withheld information on this ongoing problem for decades.

“For me, what’s worse than the original abuse is to know that it is still happening. That’s re-traumatising, and just tragic for society,” Caplan said.

As the Roman Catholic Church gets ready for the conclave that will select a new pope, activists and victims worldwide are stepping up their efforts to keep cardinals directly or indirectly involved in cases of paedophilia from participating in the papal election process.

Pressure has been brought to bear on at least five cardinals who protected priests accused of sexual abuse, including Norberto Rivera of Mexico, one of the 117 cardinals under the age of 80 set to choose the successor to Benedict XVI, who stepped down on Feb. 28.

“In order for the Church to recover its moral stature and to go back to what it was before, the next pope must be chosen by people who are moral,” Mexican activist Joaquín Aguilar told IPS.

“In order for the Church to pull out of the terrible crisis into which it has fallen because of the concealment of sexual abuse, those who have been accused must withdraw from the conclave,” said Aguilar, Mexico director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“All around the world, if someone is an accomplice of a crime, or faces charges or has been sentenced, their political rights are suspended, which means they can’t vote or be voted for,” he said. “Why doesn’t the Vatican do this, if it claims to be a moral institution? It is a disgrace for the Church. The accused scoff at the victims and their demands.”

As a seminary student, Aguilar was a victim of sexual abuse in 1994, by Father Nicolás Aguilar (no relation).

Father Aguilar served as a parish priest in the central Mexican city of Puebla in the 1980s, before he was transferred to Los Angeles, California.

According to documents that the Los Angeles archdiocese declassified in February by court order, Norberto Rivera – who is now a cardinal – transferred Father Aguilarto that U.S. city to protect him.

A court in Mexico found him guilty of the sexual abuse of boys. But he remained free on bail, and his whereabouts are currently unknown. He is also wanted in the United States for allegedly molesting at least 26 boys.

Joaquín Aguilar has brought a lawsuit in Los Angeles against Rivera for covering up the sexual abuse committed by the priest, when Rivera was a bishop in Puebla in the 1980s.

The legal action also targets U.S. Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, when he retired amidst a scandal over his role in concealing sexual abuse by priests in his archdiocese.

On Feb. 1 he was stripped of his remaining duties after the archdiocese, under court order, released thousands of declassified personnel files for 122 priests accused of molesting children. The documents shed light on Mahony’s involvement in covering up sexual abuse. On Feb. 23 he testified in court.

But this week, Mahony confirmed that the Vatican had invited him to participate in the conclave.

The cardinals who have been urged by victims of sex abuse not to attend the conclave include Sean Brady, the Catholic primate of Ireland. In 2010, it was revealed that as a priest, Brady was present at meetings in 1975 where two teenagers signed vows of silence over their complaints of abuse by another priest.

Activists are also calling on Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, who headed the Church in his country from 1979 to 2010, to stay away from the conclave.

Newspapers in Belgium reported that the cardinal had been notified at least 40 times about child molestation by priests under his jurisdiction.

The most recent case is that of the former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who was forced to resign in late February by Pope Benedict.

The British daily The Observer had reported that three priests and a former priest in Scotland had complained to the Vatican about “inappropriate” behaviour by O’Brien, and had demanded his immediate resignation.

O’Brien, who has announced that he will not take part in the conclave, admitted in a Mar. 3 statement that his sexual conduct “fell below standards,” for which he apologised.

“This is a question of justice for victims of sexual abuse, and of ethics within the College of Cardinals, when they are about to choose someone who should make sure justice is done. They can’t do that if they have been complacent,” the executive secretary of the non-governmental Observatorio Eclesial (Church Observatory), Gabriela Juárez, told IPS.

Of the cardinals who have come under fire, only O’Brien decided not to take part in picking a new pope.

Victims of sexual abuse complain that Pope Benedict – Joseph Ratzinger – frequently apologised for the harm done by priests but never took effective action to rectify it.

In his 2010 book “Abusos sexuales en la Iglesia Católica” (Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church), Argentine journalist Jorge Llistosella points to more than 9,000 cases of abuse by priests worldwide in the last five decades, which he says is just the tip of the iceberg as it only includes cases that were publicly reported.

In the United States, 4,450 priests were accused of sexually abusing minors between 1950 and 2002, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In Mexico, SNAP reports that at least 65 priests have been accused of sexual crimes.

In a Jan. 25 report, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed deep concern to the U.S. government about its failure to properly deal with “sexual abuse committed by clerics and leading members of certain faith-based organisations and religious institutions on a massive and long-term scale”.

The Committee also stressed “the lack of measures taken by the State party to properly investigate cases and prosecute those accused who are members of those organisations and institutions.”

“The only way to make reparations is to begin to punish people,” said SNAP’s Joaquin Aguilar. “Civil authorities also have to be pressured. We are at a critical juncture, when a new pope is about to be chosen, but we also have to lay our cards on the table regarding this question once and for all.”