Pope to be sued by victims who underwent clerical sexual abuses

The international tribunals at The Hague is being asked to investigate top Vatican officials over the global clerical sex abuse scandal, and victims say these offenses meet the legal definition of crimes against humanity, the NPR reports.

Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly apologized for crimes committed by priests.

But the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, and the human rights group the Center for Constitutional Rights say the Vatican has yet to implement a policy to crack down on abusive priests and cooperate with law enforcement.

SNAP's David Clohessy says these crimes, which follow the same pattern throughout the world, can't be effectively addressed piecemeal by prosecutors in individual countries, but instead require the scrutiny of an international institution.

"The systematic rape of children on a global basis day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade, in this massive institution where there are virtually no checks and balances, we honestly believe that that is every bit as heinous, and needs to be exposed and stopped, as the crimes of an individual military general who abuses the power of his troops and his weaponry," Clohessy says.