Royal Commission into child sex abuse: Claims of Vatican cover-up, by Shannon Deery, Herald Sun (February 8, 2017)

THE Vatican orchestrated the active cover-up of child sexual abuse cases through secret archives and church law, the child abuse Royal Commission has been told.

It also tried to stop victims of abuse coming forward by imposing a strict limitation on bringing claims of abuse as the horrors of the global child abuse crisis began to be exposed, it was alleged.

On the fourth day of the 15th and final probe of the Catholic Church by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse a panel of witnesses is testifying about church discipline and secrecy.

In an opening address to the commission counsel assisting Gail Furness, SC, said canon law, the law of the church, regulated and proscribe the Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse.

She said among the laws was an obligation that each diocese must keep a ‘secret archive’ which is to be separate from the diocese’s general archive.

Ms Furness said evidence would be given that “canon law explicitly states that all the documentation pertaining to the preliminary investigation into any alleged canonical offence including the sexual abuse of minors must be kept in the secret archive”.

“The circumstances in which such documents can be destroyed will be the subject of evidence,” she said.

The commission will also explore a document dating to 1922, Crimen Sollicitationis, that may have been used to hide sexually abusive priests or to prevent the disclosure of sexual crimes committed by clerics to the civil authorities.

A 1974 instruction by Pope Paul VI, known as Secreta Continere, will also be examined over claims it more than doubled the number of people within the Church who would be covered by the pontifical secret in cases of the sexual abuse of children.

Experts say it permanently prohibits the publication or communication of any such allegations and information even after the trial has ended, including the judgment of the canonical court.

The commission was told in 1983, as the global Church’s sexual abuse crisis was being exposed, the Vatican introduced a five year limitation period for victims of abuse to come forward with an allegation.

It remained in place until 2001 when the limitation was extended to 10 years but has since been extended further to 20 years and can be disregarded altogether.

Whistleblower US priest Fr Thomas Doyle told the commission Canon law had been used as an excuse in some instances by ecclesiastical authorities to not report abuse and to allow clerics to continue in ministry.

Canon law expert Kieran Tapsell said a study of 400 child sex cases in 2000 found under church laws at the time bishops had the power to dismiss just 3 per cent of abuser priests.

“They could have their faculties removed but that was not a permanent thing,” he said.