United Nations Committee Concerned that USA Gives Religious Groups a Pass on Sexual Abuse

Cardinal Timothy Dolan

I often complain about the improper deference - even special rights - afforded to religion and religious organizations in America.  A case in point is the failure of prosecutors to forcefully pursue criminal charges against religious figures who abuse or participate in conspiracies to protect sexual predators and obstruct justice.   Now, a United Nations committee is echoing this concern and believes that U.S. is soft on prosecuting sex abuse in religious groups and organizations.  Here are excerpts from an article that looks at the UN committee findings:

[A] UN committee is accusing American law enforcement of being soft on child sex abuse in religious groups – a problem infamously associated with the [Roman Catholic] Church.

­The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child stated in a February 2013 report that it was "deeply concerned" by systemic sexual abuse by higher-ups and staff of religious institutions. Most troubling was a "lack of measures taken by [American legal authorities] to properly investigate cases and prosecute those accused," partially because of "a lack of measures … to properly investigate cases and prosecute them."

The report, adopted in Geneva during a routine review of US compliance with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child on February 1, urged American law enforcement officials to create such measures in order to get to work revealing cases of sexual abuse and taking predators to court.

Authorities from various religions have been accused and convicted of sexually abusing children, but none on the scale of the Catholic Church, which in the US alone has paid out some $2 billion in damages to victims of sexual abuse over the years.

"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," the report continues.

Britain's National Secular Society, a group that lobbies against privileged treatment for religious organizations at the UN, has accused Pope Benedict XVI of covering up abuse and getting in the way of the law. 

Instead of fawning over religious leaders, American politicians ought to be seeking to have those involved in sex abuse and cover ups prosecuted and imprisoned.