Ęaramanou (PSE).
– (EL) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately, the truth here
is extremely painful. The conspiracy of silence has been broken and it has come
to light that Catholic priests and bishops are guilty of criminal acts against
nuns in at least 23 countries. The report, which was published in the American
periodical ‘National Catholic Reporter’, talks of rape, sexual abuse,
contamination with AIDS, forced abortions and blackmail and persecution of
anyone who has the courage to report these acts of violence to the officials in
charge.
However much the
Vatican official, Joachim Navarro Vals, has attempted to play down the issue or
restrict it solely to Africa, sexual abuse and violation of the fundamental
rights of women are a fact of life and, of course, neither bishops nor priests
are above the law. That is precisely why my political group is calling for the
perpetrators to be handed over to the authorities and for the judicial
authorities in the 23 countries in which these crimes were committed to deal
with all the cases of violence against women.
For its part, the
Holy See should release the five reports on the matter, strip those responsible
of all official titles, work with the judicial authorities, restore the
expelled nuns to their positions, give the victims the necessary protection and
compensation and, above all, take measures to prevent similar situations from
arising in the future and, of course, instruct priests in the fundamental
rights of women.