UN panel overstepped Vatican report on clergy child abuse: Canadian expert

OTTAWA – A Canadian expert on Roman Catholicism says a United Nations committee overstepped its mandate in a scathing report that accused the Vatican of systematically covering up child sexual abuse by priests.

Robert Dennis, vice president of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association, says the UN panel watered down its advocacy of child sexual abuse victims by criticizing the Roman Catholic church for its doctrines on homosexuality, abortion and contraception.

Dennis says that by taking on core Catholic doctrine, the panel detracted from its examination of a serious issue facing the church — the decades-long coverups of sexual abuse by clergy in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Germany and elsewhere.

Dennis’s comments echoed those of the Vatican, which criticized the UN committee for straying outside the scope of its mandate in the landmark report that was released Wednesday.

Dennis, also a Queen’s University professor in Kingston, Ont., says church doctrine on those issues is a matter of religious freedom, even if it is out of step with most Western countries.

The Harper government’s ambassador of religious freedom declined to comment on the report.