QC’s crusade to make Catholic Church accountable

Australian human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC has renewed calls to strip the Vatican of its status as a state and to indict former Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) for his role in the alleged cover-up of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, according to an article in lawyersweekly.com.au

At a screening of the documentary Silence in the House of God: Mea Maxima Culpa last night (12 March) – the same day 115 cardinal electors moved to a residence inside the Vatican to elect a new pope – Robertson discussed his involvement in bringing the former pontiff to book for allegedly protecting paedophile priests from exposure.

Robertson, who appeared in the documentary by Alex Gibney, recently gave evidence to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. He argued that the former pope acted negligently in what Robertson estimates to be 100,000 cases of sex abuse by priests since 1981, when Ratzinger became head of the Vatican office known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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