This section is reprinted from the Irish Examiner, October 2, 2006. View original link at http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2006/10/02/story14697.asp
One British archbishop labelled a BBC documentary broadcast last night as unwarranted, misleading and a “deeply prejudiced attack” against the Pope.
The documentary was presented by Colm O’Gorman, the founder of One in Four, the Irish group which supports people who have been sexually abused.
Archbishop of Birmingham, Reverend Vincent Nichols, said the Panorama programme, Sex Crimes and the Vatican, misrepresented confidential Vatican papers to back up its claims.
Speaking on behalf of the Bishops of England and Wales, he said: “This aspect of the programme is false and entirely misleading.
“It is false because it misrepresents two Vatican documents and uses them quite misleadingly in order to connect the horrors of child abuse to the person of the Pope.”
The documentary examined a secret document that apparently sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church.
It claimed the document — Crimen Sollicitationis — was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope.
The 39-page document, written in 1962, apparently instructed bishops how to deal with claims of child sex abuse.
This includes an oath of secrecy, enforceable by excommunication, which critics claimed could hinder an outside investigation and prosecution.
Father Tom Doyle, a canon solicitor sacked from the Vatican after he criticised its handling of child abuse, interpreted the document for the BBC.
However, the Catholic Church said the document was not directly concerned with child abuse at all, but with the misuse of the confessional.
It added that the second document, issued in 2001, clarified the law and does not hinder the investigation of allegations of child abuse.
An English translation of Crimen Sollicitationis, together with an interpretation of the document by Fr Doyle, can be found at the website: www.bbc.co.uk/panorama.
©Irish Examiner
