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Vatican 'ordered abuse cover-up'
BBC
A secret Vatican document, outlining procedures for handling allegations of
sex
abuse by priests, has been published in the US and UK.
Lawyers acting for alleged victims of abuse say the document proves that for
decades the Vatican has systematically obstructed the course of justice in
order
to protect Catholic priests.
Church lawyers, on the other hand, argue that the document referred only to
church law and did not order bishops to engage in criminal cover-ups.
But the US lawyer who uncovered the document told a British newspaper the
archive material is a smoking gun.
The lawyer, Daniel Shea, told The Observer newspaper the 1962 Vatican
instruction was "a devious attempt to conceal criminal conduct".
It "is a blueprint for deception and concealment", the Sunday newspaper
quotes
him as saying.
So that these matters be pursued in a most secretive way, everyone is to be
restrained by a perpetual silence under penalty of excommunication.
The document was sent to every bishop in the world, with orders to keep it
under
lock and key, the BBC's David Willey in Rome reports.
Mr Shea, who represents alleged victims of abuse by Catholic priests,
obtained
the document from an American priest and handed it over to US authorities.
It bears the seal of Pope John XXIII, and calls for "strictest" secrecy in
dealing with abuse allegations within the Church.
It threatens to expel from the Church anyone who breaks their silence.
It deals primarily with priests accused of propositioning congregants during
confession, the Catholic rite in which the faithful tell priests of their
sins.
Mr Shea says he was given the document by a clergyman in Germany who has
close
dealings with the Vatican.
He handed a copy of the document to US authorities late last month.
Church's defence
Early in August, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said that the
document,
"Instruction on the manner of proceeding in cases of solicitation", had not
been
in force for years.
The conference said it was superseded by later guidelines introduced in the
1960s, 1970s and in 1983, the Associated Press reported.
The Vatican's 1983 Code of Canon Law says a priest found to have abused a
minor
can be defrocked.
The conference also said the 1962 document "had no bearing on civil law" and
had
been misrepresented.
The US Catholic Church has been rocked by revelations of sexual abuse by
priests.
Bishops there have been accused of protecting priests suspected of sexual
abuse,
moving them to new parishes rather than confronting the problem.
The leader of England and Wales's Catholics, Archbishop Cormac
Murphy-O'Connor,
has apologised for relocating priest Michael Hill when accusations against
him
arose.
Vatican critics say the 1962 document suggests bishops who moved priests may
have been acting in line with instructions from Rome.
They also say its age refutes Church claims that the problem of sex abuse by
priests is a new one.
The Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, was forced to resign late
last
year after he admitted he had covered up sexual abuse by priests for many
years.
The Church faces hundreds of civil lawsuits by people who say they were
abused.
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