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Bishops' fury at BBC attack on Pope over abuse claims
Last updated at 00:07am on 02.10.06
Pope Benedict: 'He enforced secret procedure'
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is complaining to the BBC over a programme accusing Pope Benedict XVI of covering up child abuse by priests.
Bishops condemned last night's BBC1 Panorama special as an "unwarranted, prejudiced attack on a revered world religious leader".
Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, president of the Bishops' Conference, is writing to protest to Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC.
The documentary, Sex Crimes And The Vatican, claimed to reveal how in 2001, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - as the Pope was then - issued a 'secret Vatican edict' telling the world's Catholic bishops to put the Church before children's safety.
The programme said he advised Church leaders to encourage complainants, the accused and witnesses to talk about abuse allegations rather than report them to the police.
It described the document as an updated version of a 1962 Vatican order which, it claimed, laid down the rules for covering up sex scandals.
The film claimed the 39-page document - Crimen Sollicitationis - was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Ratzinger. It includes an oath of secrecy, enforceable by excommunication, which critics say could hinder investigations and prosecution.
Father Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer sacked from the Vatican after criticising its handling of child abuse, said it was an explicit written policy to cover up abuse, emphasising the total control of the Vatican and giving no mention to victims.
But the Church said the document was not directly concerned with child abuse at all, but with the misuse of the confessional.
Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham, issued a statement last night on behalf of the Church in England and Wales revealing the bishops' anger.
He said: "The BBC should be ashamed of the journalism used to create this unwarranted attack on Pope Benedict XVI."
He singled out "sensational tactics and misleading editing, old footage and undated interviews".
He said Panorama misrepresented two documents and "uses them misleadingly to connect the horrors of child abuse to the person of the Pope".
The BBC stood by Panorama, adding: "The protection of children is of the strongest public interest."
Reader views (4)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
My sincerest gratitude to the BBC for having the courage to broadcast the documentary Sex Crimes and The Vatican. The physical, verbal and sexual abuse by some members of the The Catholic church has been hidden up for far too long. My mother was an Irish Catholic who was locked up in one of those so called Magadelene Convents before the birth of her first son. Children were allegedly sold from these asylums and where did the money go? Of course to the Catholic Church. The affects of this abuse not only has a major impact on the victim but the relatives for future generations. How many members of the catholic church have been prosecuted for any type of abuse?
- Theresa Avery, Zurich Switzerland
Well done, BBC. This perverted, disgusting, immoral, and illegal activity must cease; the catholic church must start cooperating instead of obstructing.
Your report certainly damns the pope.
- Claude, London England
The BBC seems to like soft targets and the presumption of guilt and misdemeanour: loving to assume the worst, especially when the target disdains its own defence.
If, as seems extraordinarily unlikely, Ratzinger attempted to suppress child abuse it would be better to lay the blame where it belongs: at the feet of his sainted predecessor, the authoritarian, misogynistic John Paul II, who was no sort of pioneer in this regard. If Ratzinger actually encouraged people to speak up, if only at the confessional, that was a positive break with a hideous past in which no speaking up at all was encouraged and silence much preferred.
- Hugh Allen, Solingen, Germany
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