Bishops reject Vatican abuse cover-up claims

Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales have rejected as "false and entirely misleading" a BBC documentary about an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse under a system enforced by Pope Benedict XVI in his previous job.

The head of the Catholic Church in the two countries, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, plans to write to BBC director-general Mark Thompson to protest about the program.

The documentary, by the BBC's flagship Panorama current affairs program, examines what it describes as a secret document written in 1962 that sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

The document imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witness.

The BBC says breaking that oath would result in excommunication.

The documentary, Sex Crimes and the Vatican, says the procedure was aimed at protecting a priest's reputation until the church had investigated, but can in practice offer a "blueprint for cover-up".

It says Pope Benedict was in charge of enforcing the document for 20 years, as head of the Vatican department that enforces doctrine, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, from 1981 until his election as Pope in April, 2005.

The Vatican says it is studying the transcript of the show but has no immediate comment.

'False and misleading'

But speaking for the bishops of England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham says the BBC should be "ashamed of the standard of the journalism used to create this unwarranted attack on Pope Benedict XVI".

He says the documentary highlights cases of child abuse by priests, a crime he says the Catholic Church dealt with seriously, carefully and with transparency.

But he says it also directly attacks the Vatican.

"This aspect of the program is false and entirely misleading," he said.

"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 second document cited by the BBC is a 2001 update of the original text.

Britain's public broadcaster has defended its documentary.

"The protection of children is clearly an issue of the strongest public interest," it said in a statement, responding to the bishops' criticism.

"The BBC stands by tonight's Panorama program and invites viewers to make up their own minds once they've seen it."

- Reuters