Fr Lombardi SJ: Note on children's rights Committee findings
Feb 7, 2014: The Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Fr. Federico Lombardi,
SJ, has issued a Note to Vatican Radio (of which he is Director-General) regarding
the United Nations, the Holy See, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in
the wake of the Committee’s Concluding Observations on the reviewed Reports of the
Holy See (and five member states that are also parties to the convention).
Fr.
Lombardi SJ writes, “It is impossible not to see that the final recommendations of
the Committee appear to present – according to the judgment of those, who followed
closely the process that preceded them – serious limits,” noting in particular the
Observations’ conspicuous lack of understanding of the specific nature of the Holy
See – a lack he describes as, “particularly grave.”
Fr. Lombardi SJ stresses
that, while the Holy See has been subjected to “unjustly harmful” media attention,
it is also true and at least equally important to recognize that the Committee itself
has received “serious and well-founded” criticism. He goes on to underline that, while
the United Nations organization as such is not responsible for the shortcomings of
the Committee, public opinion has assigned the organization the brunt of negative
fallout from the Committee’s conduct.
The three-page Note also reviews in detail
the Holy See’s history of support for the work of the United Nations, as well as the
history of the Holy See’s adherence to and participation in the Convention on the
Right s of the Child (the Holy See was one of the earliest adherents to the Convention).
“The adherence of the Holy See to the Convention,” writes Fr. Lombardi SJ,
“is motivated by a long-standing commitment of the Universal Church and of the Holy
See in favor of the good of children.” He goes on to write, “It is for this reason,
[that] the Holy See shall to dedicate itself to the effective implementation of the
Convention, and to the maintenance of an open, constructive and sincere dialogue,”
with the organs of the Convention.
Vatican Radio's translation of the full
text of the Note.
After the large number of articles and comments that
followed the publication of the recommendations of the audit Committee of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, it seems useful to make a few comments and clarifications.
It
is not appropriate to speak of confrontation “between the UN and the Vatican”. The
United Nations is a reality that is very important to humanity today.
The Holy
See has always provided strong moral support to the United Nations as a meeting place
among all the nations, to foster peace in the world and the growth of the community
of peoples in harmony, mutual respect and mutual enrichment. Countless documents and
addresses of the Holy See at [the UN’s] highest levels and the intense participation
of the Holy See’s representatives in the activities of many UN bodies attest to this.
The
highest authorities of the UN have ever been aware of the importance of the moral
and religious support of the Holy See for the growth of the community of nations:
so they invited Popes to visit the organization and direct their words to the General
Assembly. In the footsteps of Paul VI, John Paul II (twice) and Benedict XVI have
done so. In short, the United Nations, at the highest levels, appreciate and desire
the support of the Holy See and positive dialogue with it. So does the Holy See, for
the good of the human family. This is the perspective in which the present questions
ought to be raised.
International Conventions promoted by the United Nations
are one of the ways in which the international community seeks to promote the dynamic
of the search for peace and the promotion of the rights of the human person in specific
fields. States are free to join. The Holy See/Vatican City State has adhered to those
it considers most important in the light of its activities and its mission. (It should
be noted that adherence to a Convention entails a commitment to participation, reports,
etc. , which require staff and resources – for which reason the Holy See must choose
[to adhere to] a limited number of Conventions, commensurate with its possibilities
for participation). Among these, in a timely manner, the Holy See joined – among the
first in the world – the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in the light of the
great work done in this field, in many different forms ( educational, charitable ,
etc. . ) and for so long, by the Catholic community in the world, and in light of
the Magisterium of the Church in this area, inspired by the behavior of Jesus described
in the Gospels.
Naturally, the operations of the UN are vast and complex, and
like any large organization – and precisely because of its international and as far
as possible universal nature – embraces very different persons, positions and voices.
It is therefore no wonder that in the vast world of the UN different visions shall
encounter and even collide with each other. Therefore, in order that the overall result
be positive, a great willingness to be open to dialogue is needed, along with attentive
respect for essential rules and procedures, and in preparing activities.
For
the verification of the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
there is a committee based in Geneva, which holds two sessions a year, and which receives
the reports of the different Party States, studies them and discusses them with the
delegations sent by them, and formulates recommendations for better implementation
of the provisions of the Convention. The recommendations made by the Committee are
often quite sparse and of relative weight. It is not by chance, that there is rarely
heard a worldwide echo of the recommendations in the international press, even in
the case of countries where problems of human rights and [problems regarding] children
are known to be grave.
In the case of reports submitted to the Committee by
the Holy See in recent months on the implementation of the Convention and the additional
Protocols: ample written responses were given to the questions subsequently formulated
by the Committee, after which followed a day for the hearing of a special delegation
of the Holy See in Geneva on January 16. Now there has come, on February 5, the publication
of the Committee 's concluding observations and recommendations . This [publication]
has aroused extensive reaction and response.
What is there to observe in this
regard?
First, the Holy See 's adherence to the Convention was motivated by
a historical commitment of the universal Church and the Holy See for the sake of the
children. Anyone who does not realize what this [commitment] represents for the sake
of the children in the world today, is simply unfamiliar with this dimension of reality.
The Holy See, therefore, as the Holy See’s Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin
has said, continues its efforts to implement the Convention and to maintain an open,
constructive and engaged dialogue with the organs contained therein. [The Holy See]
will take its further positions and will give account of them, and so on, without
trying to escape from a genuine dialogue, from the established procedures, with openness
to justified criticism – but the Holy See will do so with courage and determination
, without timidity.
At the same time, one cannot fail to see that the latest
recommendations issued by the Committee appear to present – in the opinion of those
who have followed well the process that preceded them – grave limitations.
They
have not taken adequate account of the responses , both written and oral, given by
the representatives of the Holy See . Those who have read and heard these answers
do not find proportionate reflections of them in the document of the Committee, so
as to suggest that it was practically already written, or at least already in large
part blocked out before the hearing.
In particular, the [Observations’] lack
of understanding of the specific nature of the Holy See seem serious. It is true that
the Holy See is a reality different from other countries, and that this makes it less
easy to understand the Holy See’s role and responsibilities . [These particularities],
however, have been explained in detail many times in the Holy See’s twenty years and
more of adherence to the Convention, and [specifically addressed] in recent written
responses. [Are we dealing with] an inability to understand, or an unwillingness to
understand? In either case, one is entitled to amazement.
The way in which
the objections [contained in the Concluding Observations] were presented, as well
as the insistence on diverse particular cases, seem to suggest that a much greater
attention was given to certain NGOs, the prejudices of which against the Catholic
Church and the Holy See are well known, rather than to the positions of the Holy See
itself, which were also available in a detailed dialogue with the Committee.
A
lack of desire to recognize all the Holy See and the Church have done in recent years,
[especially as regards] recognizing errors, renewing the regulations, and developing
educational and preventive measures, is in fact typical of such organizations. Few,
other organizations or institutions, if any, have done as much. This, however, is
definitely not what one understands by reading the document in question.
Finally,
and this is perhaps the most serious observation: the Committee’s comments in several
directions seem to go beyond its powers and to interfere in the very moral and doctrinal
positions of the Catholic Church, giving indications involving moral evaluations of
contraception, or abortion, or education in families, or the vision of human sexuality,
in light of [the Committee’s] own ideological vision of sexuality itself. For this
reason, in the official communique released Wednesday morning there was talk of “an
attempt to interfere in the teaching of the Catholic Church on the dignity of the
human person and in the exercise of religious freedom.”
Finally, one cannot
but observe that the tone, development, and the publicity given by the Committee in
its document are absolutely anomalous when compared to its normal progress in relations
with other States that are party to the Convention.
In sum: if the Holy See
was certainly the subject of an initiative and a media attention in our view unfairly
harmful, one needs to recognize that, in turn, the Committee has itself attracted
much serious and well-founded criticism. Without desiring to place [responsibility
for] what has transpired “[on] the United Nations”, it must be said that the UN carries
the brunt of the negative consequences in public opinion, for the actions of a Committee
that calls itself [by the UN name].
Let us try to find the correct plan of
commitment for the good of the children – even through the instrument of the Convention.
The Holy See will not allow its careful and reasoned responses to be lacking.