In a formal response to the United Nations, the Vatican has criticized what it calls a "grave misunderstanding" of state sovereignty. The statement was posted Friday on the Vatican web site.
It answers a U.N. report from February demanding that the Holy See enforce compliance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in dioceses and churches around the world. The CRC includes provisions to protect minors from sexual abuse.
In its reply to the U.N., the Holy See says it can only enforce international law within Vatican City State's 110 acres in Rome, and for its citizens and diplomatic envoys when appropriate.
The rebuttal is more or less an extended version of a statement made earlier this year by the Vatican. It expands on initial concerns that the U.N. report from the Committee on the Rights of the Child interferes with Catholic teaching on human life and the free exercise of religion.
The Vatican is spiritually responsible for more than a billion Catholics in its flock worldwide. But its civic obligation as a nation state to legally govern Catholic clergy is less clear.
In the reply, the Holy See says it would interfere with the sovereignty of other nations if it attempted to police international laws outside its walls. The U.N. report constitutes a "controversial new approach to jurisdiction," the Vatican says.
Catholic priests are citizens of the hundreds of countries where they reside, accountable to their various national laws, and bound to international laws entered into by their countries. Church bodies around the world are subject to the religious law of the Vatican, called "canon law," but the Church has never claimed canon law as a replacement for local laws.
The U.N. has not so far released any statements about the Vatican's comments.
VATICAN BEAT
• English bishop Kieran Conry has voluntarily resigned, admitting that several years ago he was "unfaithful to his promises as a Catholic priest."
• Catholic bishops cited Bethlehem University as an example of Muslim-Christian cooperation after a recent trip to the Holy Land.
• Alvaro del Portillo, Spanish priest and former leader of Opus Dei, now bears the title "Blessed." More than 100 thousand people went to Madrid for his beatification ceremony, the third of four steps to being declared a "saint," the New York Times reported.
• Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis got together with 40,000 of their senior citizen peers in St. Peter's Square on Sunday. NBC News reports what Francis said to the "wise and wrinkled."
Kathryn Elliott covers the Vatican, Pope Francis and all things related to the Catholic Church for HNGN. She is a producer for EWTN News Nightly, an international cable news show airing weeknights at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST on the Global Catholic Television Network. Kathryn has reported for the National Catholic Register, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Catholic Spirit, The Minnesota Daily and The Word Among Us Magazine. She has a BA in professional journalism from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Kathryn lives in Washington D.C. Follow her on Twitter at @kmelliott90.
