UN ‘ignored’ efforts to tackle problem

A spokesman for the Polish bishops’ conference criticised last week’s UN report about child abuse in the Catholic Church and claimed that it had ignored efforts by the Vatican to tackle the problem, writes Josef Pazderka. “It gives the impression that the Holy See has done absolutely nothing in connection with this matter, and this is not true,” said Fr Jozef Kloch. “In my opinion, there is no other institution that has handled the problem in such a systematic way.”

The report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) stated that the Vatican “must remove all child abusers” immediately from the Church. Fr Kloch criticised the CRC’s choice of words, arguing that “the removal of someone from the Catholic Church means that they have ceased to be a Christian”. “No one has such powers, because a person becomes a Christian through baptism,” he argued, adding that “clergymen found to have committed serious abuses” are laicised.

The Polish Church has recently been exposed to an unprecedented series of claims concerning child abuse. The most prominent cases involve two clergymen who served in the Dominican Republic, including former papal nuncio Archbishop Józef Wesolowski.

In October 2013, Archbishop Józef Michalik, head of the Polish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, sparked controversy when he claimed that victims of child abuse by priests were often “searching for love” because they were from broken homes.

In the meantime, the Polish Church is being sued for damages for the first time by the victim of a paedophile priest. A demand for 47,500 euros was made by a 25-year-old male – identified only as Marcin K – who was molested as a child. A Catholic priest was sentenced in 2012 to two years in prison in the case, but his diocese refused to be held financially liable. Marcin K launched the civil suit after the Polish Catholic Church rejected his direct request for damages in October 2013.