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Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests'
Last updated at 23:22pm on 30.09.06
Top: Tom Doyle and, bottom, Pope Benedict
The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.
In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.
The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.
The Panorama special, Sex Crimes And The Vatican, investigates the details of this little-known document for the first time. The programme also accuses the Catholic Church of knowingly harbouring paedophile clergymen. It reveals that priests accused of child abuse are generally not struck off or arrested but simply moved to another parish, often to reoffend. It gives examples of hush funds being used to silence the victims.
Before being elected as Pope Benedict XVI in April last year, the pontiff was Cardinal Thomas Ratzinger who had, for 24 years, been the head of the powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of The Faith, the department of the Roman Catholic Church charged with promoting Catholic teachings on morals and matters of faith. An arch-Conservative, he was regarded as the 'enforcer' of Pope John Paul II in cracking down on liberal challenges to traditional Catholic teachings.
Five years ago he sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis - Latin for The Crime of Solicitation - which laid down the Vatican's strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times.
Cardinal Ratzinger reinforced the strict cover-up policy by introducing a new principle: that the Vatican must have what it calls Exclusive Competence. In other words, he commanded that all child abuse allegations should be dealt with direct by Rome.
Patrick Wall, a former Vatican-approved enforcer of the Crimen Sollicitationis in America, tells the programme: "I found out I wasn't working for a holy institution, but an institution that was wholly concentrated on protecting itself."
And Father Tom Doyle, a Vatican lawyer until he was sacked for criticising the church's handling of child abuse claims, says: "What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.
"When abusive priests are discovered, the response has been not to investigate and prosecute but to move them from one place to another. So there's total disregard for the victims and for the fact that you are going to have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. This is happening all over the world."
The investigation could not come at a worse time for Pope Benedict, who is desperately trying to mend the Church's relations with the Muslim world after a speech in which he quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor who said that Islam was spread by holy war and had brought only evil to the world.
The Panorama programme is presented by Colm O'Gorman, who was raped by a priest when he was 14. He said: "What gets me is that it's the same story every time and every place. Bishops appoint priests who they know have abused children in the past to new parishes and new communities and more abuse happens."
Last night Eileen Shearer, director of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults said: "The Catholic Church in England and Wales (has) established a single set of national policies and procedures for child protection work. We are making excellent progress in protecting children and preventing abuse."
Panorama: Sex Crimes And The Vatican is on BBC1 tonight at 10.15pm.
Reader views (27)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
As a Roman Catholic and as an American..I'm deeply ashamed at the bowing and grovelling being shown to this horrible man. He gave a speech the other day "apologizing" for the abuse..as if he hadn't had such a part in protecting the abusers themselves. A large was of spittle hung in the right corner of his lying, duplicitous mouth. He is the devil incarnate in patent leather gucci pumps. Instead of being in a popemobile..he ought to be in the weinermobile..headed for the lock-up.
- Christine Craft, san francisco,California usa
In 2006, a film called "Deliver Us From Evil" was released in the USA, that won several awards and was nominated for the Oscar for best feature documentary. It concerns the scandal of the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. The filmmakers interviewed three California victims (two women and a man) of the same priest, as well as the families of the victims and the priest himself, who confessed, was ultimately convicted and spend time in prison before being returned to Ireland to roam free. The film makes it very clear that higher-ups within the Church, particularly Cardinal Roger Mahony, knew exactly what was happening with this particular priest, and lied and schemed to protect him from the wrath of his parishioners by moving him from one town to another in California for many years so that he could continue to compulsively abuse children. The film also exposes the current Pope's long term leadership in the overall strategy of suppressing the evidence and allowing paedophile priests to go unpunished. The film makes clear that not all paedophiles are homosexuals; in fact, this particular priest was a typical paedophile whose interest was not his victim's gender, but their age. Catholics who close their eyes to this awful tragedy are doing their beloved church no good. Reform it and fix it. Expose the demons before nothing is left. Sadly, what the BBC documentary reveals is only the tip of the iceberg.
- Phyllis, Brooklyn, NY
Of course he did, just like the bishops across the land protected the ranks, they knew, and as such the partook in the abuse of our children. As for why, I do not need to mention the #1 reason. But a among the unspoken obvious, there was and is the issue of money, and all of their vast land holdings in each of our communities. And when the huge settlement payouts came what did the good Pope do? He sold land for money. Whose land, ask the nuns that have lost their retirement homes.
- Angela Kortz Funke, Pewee Valley, KY USA
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