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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The conference said it was superseded by later guidelines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.

This has had an impact on Catholic charities too. My nephew, a doctor and
Catholic convert, used to work for a church-funded medical group that was
dedicated in bringing medical care to poor countries in the Western
Hemisphere. For the past several years he had done pediatric work in Haiti
and Brazil. This year the group he worked for didn't have money to send

and his fellow doctors because parishioners aren't making the

they once did, and the funds are no longer there.