The Vatican will submit a long-overdue report on its treatment of
children to the United Nations this fall, the Holy See's envoy in Geneva
said Monday.
The Holy See was originally due to submit a progress
report to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child in 1997, but
failed to do to year after year without explanation.
"From what I'm able to say it's that (in) September or October it will be presented," said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.
The
Vatican diplomat said last year that the report's release was imminent.
But he told reporters in Geneva on Monday that "imminent, in the
tradition of the Church, it's a very long time."
Human rights
groups have urged the Vatican to explain in the report its role in the
cover-up of child abuse committed by Catholic clergy.
"It will be
interesting to see if they come clean on this in September," said Roy
Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, a secular group
that frequently criticizes the Vatican at the U.N. "We've been waiting
for this report for a very long time."
Tomasi said he welcomed
Ireland's recent decision to investigate allegations of child abuse at
Catholic-run institutions in the country.
Earlier this month the
U.N. Committee against Torture urged the Irish government to investigate
claims that women and girls sent to work in Catholic laundries were
abused through much of the 20th century.
It made a similar
recommendation for boys' institutions.
"In this kind of effort,
whatever practical decision is necessary I hope and I assume will be
taken," Tomasi said, without elaborating.