The report, from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, ignored more than a decade of Church apologies, restitution, expulsions and reforms to charge that the Holy See has neither fully acknowledged the extent of crimes committed against children and, worse, has “adopted policies and practices that contribute to the continuation of abuse.” That is blatantly false. But what makes the report particularly extraordinary is the committee’s suggestion that the Church rethink its teachings on abortion, same-sex marriage and contraception.

Fair enough to rehash the past. Widespread crimes were committed against children and many coverups within the Church occurred. It’s a shameful, ugly story, and the UN does a thorough job of retelling it in their report.

But if this report was to be anything more than an anti-Church rant — if it was to be at all balanced and honest — it had to give Pope Benedict credit for the reforms he launched and for the many hundreds of priests he expelled, and give a nod to Pope Francis for pledging to continue Benedict’s work. It had to record that the Church has done more in this area than most other governments and institutions. Instead, it leapt from a simplistic tongue-lashing for past failures into a finger-wagging taunt of Church moral teaching.

The committee wandered way outside its mandate when it stuck its nose into Church doctrine by expressing its obvious displeasure at Church teaching on abortion, same-sex marriage and contraception. That a report about child abuse ventured into those areas was as unexpected as it was inappropriate. Surely a UN committee should be expected to abide by the UN’s own declaration of human rights, which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It is alarming that a UN document could be darkened by anti-religious views.

On abortion, the report suggests the Church should “review its position.” It was an impudent request. The Vatican is a signatory to the UN’s “Declaration of the Rights of the Child,” which declares that every child “needs special safeguards and care” and is entitled to “appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.” If every child has these inalienable rights, and if the UN recognizes a child exists before birth, then the UN’s own child-oversight committee should be applauding the Church and decrying violence against children in the womb.

But this committee did none of that. Instead it attacked the Church through a report fattened by hypocrisy and starved of integrity.