GENEVA — The Vatican has dismissed more than 800 priests for sexual abuse of children in the past decade and paid billions of dollars in compensation, senior Vatican officials told a United Nations panel on Tuesday, presenting the Roman Catholic Church as a model of reform but drawing the ire of victims’ groups that said it still seeks to dodge responsibility for the harm that priests continue to inflict.
The extraordinary disclosures were made on the second day of hearings by a United Nations committee in Geneva reviewing the Vatican’s compliance with an international treaty prohibiting torture. Church officials faced blunt questions about the measures taken to punish priests who abuse children and the church’s willingness to cooperate with civil authorities in punishing such crimes.
