International group pursues the Vatican for ‘crimes against humanity’

AN international clerical abuse survivors group is calling on Irish bishops to release secret files as it pursues the Vatican for crimes against humanity at the Hague.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap) and New York-based rights group Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) lodged papers against Pope Benedict XVI in a landmark action in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

They allege the Pope and three senior cardinals in Rome “tolerated and enabled the systematic and widespread concealing of rape and child sex crimes”.