The Vatican is bracing for a blistering session this week before the U.N. Committee Against Torture, which is expected to address the Holy See’s handling of its churchwide sexual abuse scandal and its infringement on human rights.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, warned against “ideological pressure” if the U.N. panel veers off topic like its sibling U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child did in a report earlier this year.