There are tens of thousands of people worldwide, whose father either was, at the time of their birth, or still is, a catholic priest or a member of a catholic order. To those children of priests, fundamental human and civil rights are being denied. The laws are clear in all western countries: Everybody has got the same rights, independent of the status of his or her parents. This includes the right to child support and to inherit, as well as the right to contact with one's father.  The denial of these rights to the children of priests by the catholic church, which has also not been sufficiently sanctioned and thereby prevented by courts and governments, has led to a situation that couldn't normally be possible in modern society: that there is a group of citizens to whom existing laws are not being applied because of the fact of their birth.  This website intends to contribute to a change of this indefensible situation.  

 Exhortation of the Vatican by the UN commitee on the rights of the child (CRC)

The exhortation of the Vatican by the UN commitee on the rights of the child (CRC) in the concluding observations of it's periodic report in February 2014,  „to assess the number of children born of Catholic priests, find out who they are and take all the necessary measures to ensure the rights of these children to know and to be cared for by their fathers, as appropriate“, is a very important step toward full human rights for children of priests, and, given the almost 1000 year old taboo surrounding the issue, almost  revolutionary, as it is the first time that a secular authority has reprimanded the Vatican on its treatment of children of priests.

The recommendation that „the Holy See ensure that churches no longer impose confidentiality agreements when providing mothers with financial plans to support their children” is also the first time that the imposition of these agreements has been officially condemned. It is also a concrete assignment for the Vatican, to end the practice of confidentiality agreements -which are clearly a breach of the law- and to no longer inhibit the payment of both normal child support, and educational support later on.

As some of the wording of the UN-statement is very similar to that we have been using on our old website, and since  we had also first brought up confidentiality agreements on that homepage, we think to have contributed somewhat to that breaktrough, and are grateful for having been able to do this.   

You can find the relevant articles of the UN-report via this link, while the entire document can be found here.

There is also a petition online, that explicitly calls on the Vatican to comply with the recommendation of the UN.