Church sex-abuse victims urge ICC prosecution

Read this post...
VERY SHAME .. The Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said on Tuesday it had filed the complaint with the ICC with help from lawyers from the non-profit US Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR). They called on the court "take action and prosecute the Pope and three other high-ranking Vatican officials for their direct and superior responsibility for the crimes against humanity of rape and other sexual violence committed around the world". The Catholic Church has been rocked by a series of sexual-abuse scandals and allegations of cover-up in Europe and the US in recent years. But this is the first time the sexual-abuse scandal has been brought to an international jurisdiction, marking a new approach by victims and rights groups. The three other Vatican officials the group is asking that they be investigated are Tarcisio Bertone, the cardinal secretary of state; Angelo Sodano, his predecessor; and William Levada, a US cardinal. Levada is head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican office designated to investigate sex abuse cases forwarded to it by bishops. Rising anger Megan Peterson, a 21-year-old SNAP member who spoke publicly of her abuse for the first time last week, was among those backing the initiative. Describing her ordeal, she recalled: "When at age 15, I called the diocese to report the rapes they hung up on me." She called on the ICC to "take this case seriously and do the right thing". "I don't want any more kids to go through what I went through," she said. The Roman Catholic Church is struggling to deal with rising anger and a string of lawsuits after thousands of child abuse claims in Europe and the US. The latest major crisis came in July, when Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, launched a ferocious attack on the Roman Catholic Church's "absolutely disgraceful" failure to deal with years of sexual abuse of children by priests. Benedict has expressed shame and sorrow over the clerical sex scandal and has called on bishops around the world to come up with common guidelines against paedophiles by May 2012. But the issue shows no sign of going away. Nick Xenophon, an Australian senator, named on Tuesday a Catholic priest who allegedly raped a teenage boy in assaults dating back about 50 years, after the church refused his demand that they withdraw him from his post.