As Vatican representatives prepare to testify before a United Nations inquiry into torture next week, a senior official warned investigators that it would be “deceptive” to link torture with the pedophilia scandals that have swept the Catholic Church.
The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Friday (May 2) the Convention Against Torture, endorsed by the Vatican in 2002, was one of the most important in the U.N.’s ambit.
Lombardi also stressed in a statement the Holy See’s “strong commitment against any form of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.”
