Childhood and violated rights: the kidnapping of newborns and pedophilia within the Roman Catholic Church

Abstract

Starting from a journalistic enquiry on two events which, only apparently, are not linked, the article highlights the connection between a few bedrocks of catholic religious thought and the systematic crimes against humanity many clergymen committed by sexually abusing children. This is the case, for example, of pedophilia which the Roman Catholic Church considers to be an offence against morality, an offence to God, rather than a true crime, possibly, the cruellest crime against the most vulnerable human beings. This conception is at the basis of the protection ecclesiastic hierarchies have offered to pedophile priests, who are being moved from one parish to the other, thus escaping justice. For the Roman Catholic Church, safeguarding children is not a priority when it comes to protect its public image. A report issued by the United Nations shows unequivocally how, in the last twenty-five years, the Vatican has never considered the psycho-physical health of children to be one of its priorities. This approach, which is detrimental to inalienable human rights, involve all ecclesiastic hierarchies and also reflects the active role thousands of catholic priests played in stealing newborns and children from unbelieving parents in Spain and Latin America in the Twentieth Century.