WARSAW, Poland – The late Polish pope John Paul II knew about youngster abuse in Poland’s Catholic church years earlier than changing into pontiff and helped cowl it up, personal broadcaster TVN reported Sunday.
Michal Gutowski, the investigator behind the published, stated that Karol Wojtyla, as he then was, knew of instances of pedophile clergymen throughout the church whereas nonetheless a cardinal in Krakow.
He transferred the clergymen to different dioceses — one as far-off as Austria — to make sure no scandal ensued, he stated.
Wojtyla, who was pope for 27 years from 1978 till his loss of life in 2005, wrote a letter of advice for a priest accused of abuse to Vienna cardinal Franz Koenig, with out mentioning the accusations, says Gutowski.
During his investigation, Gutowski says he spoke to victims of pedophile clergymen, their households and former church diocese workers.
He cites paperwork from the previous Communist-era SB secret police and uncommon church paperwork to which he handle to get entry.
But Gutowski stated the Krakow diocese had refused him entry to its personal documentary archives.
The Polish church has prior to now refused to offer paperwork to the judiciary or a public fee of enquiry investigating instances of church abuse of minors.
Similar accusations
One of Gutowski’s sources stated on situation of anonymity that he had personally instructed Wojtyla about acts of pedophilia regarding one priest in 1973.
“Wojtyla first wanted to make sure it wasn’t a bluff,” the supply stated.
“He asked it not be reported anywhere — he said he would deal with it.” The then cardinal had explicitly requested the alleged affair be saved strictly beneath wraps, he added.
Thomas Doyle, an American former Catholic priest, canon regulation scholar, and the creator of one of many first studies of Catholic clergy abuse within the United States, stated Gutowski’s investigation was groundbreaking.
It confirmed that John Paul II knew this drawback existed even earlier than he grew to become pope, he argued.
The broadcast of the investigation in historically Catholic Poland comes quickly after a Polish-based Dutch journalist, Ekke Overbeek, made related accusations.
Overbeek’s e-book, Maxima Culpa, is because of go on sale in Poland this week.
Over the previous two years, and amid a number of studies of abuse of minors within the Polish church, the Vatican has sanctioned a number of high-ranking church officers for having coated up pedophilia by members of the clergy. —Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
