VATICAN CITY (RNS) Catholic parents have a “right and duty” to
report the sexual abuse of minors, in spite of any “ill-informed and misplaced considerations of loyalty” to their church, the Vatican’s chief sex abuse investigator said.
Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna made his remarks on Thursday (Nov. 3) in Rome, at an international conference on children’s rights.
While Scicluna spoke of disclosure only to “higher authority,” and did not specify police or prosecutors, his language suggested that he was referring to authorities beyond the church hierarchy.
“Sacred power rightly generates sacred trust,” he said. “Unfortunately and wrongly, it may generate fear to disclose crimes by religious leaders. The empowerment of the community in this context means the ability to denounce abuse of sacred power for what it is: a betrayal of trust.”
