VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Ara [Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain]
March 19, 2026
An international media investigation reveals how the Holy See has covered up cases of sexual abuse around the world since at least the 1930s.
The Vatican has covered up thousands of cases of pedophilia in various parts of the world for nearly a century, according to an investigation by the German media outlet. Corrective, in collaboration with The Country and together with the international media The Boston Globefrom the United States, theObserverfrom Portugal andMacondo HouseFrom Colombia, in which they claim that “the Vatican has what is probably the largest archive of unpunished pedophiles in the world.”
This international investigation has managed to gather internal and previously unpublished documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body that investigates cases of pedophilia affecting members of the Catholic Church, revealing systemic errors and the cover-up of sexual abuse cases. The oldest documents in the investigation, provided by historian Davide F. Jabes, date back to a crucial moment for the German Catholic Church: the rise of the Nazi regime during the pontificate of Pius XI. The Country He explains that these documents reveal that at that time there was already fluid communication between the Vatican and the bishops regarding cases of pedophilia, and that for the Church this was dangerous information that had to be hidden. Faced with the risk that the files of priests accused of pedophilia would fall into the hands of the Nazis, the ecclesiastical hierarchy gave a clear order: “Burn it all.”
The journalistic investigation also focuses on the figure of Pope Benedict XVI, the German Joseph Ratzinger. A letter from 1986, when Ratzinger was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reveals that he already had information about a priest, Peter Hullermann, from his previous diocese of Munich, who was a dangerous pedophile. This priest was not removed and ended up abusing 23 minors. New York Times It was reported in 2010 that in 1980 Ratzinger presided over a meeting in which it was admitted that Hullermann had received three complaints of abuse and had undergone therapy. As Pope, the German denied knowing the details of this case. But an audit conducted in 2022 showed that Ratzinger knew of at least four cases of pedophile priests and explained that Ratzinger had not told the truth about Hullermann. This information led him, after he had already resigned as pontiff, to admit an “unintentional” error and place the responsibility for the Hullermann affair on a collaborator. In the 1986 letter, Ratzinger authorized Hullermann to celebrate Mass, although the letter sent to him from Munich included a document detailing the child abuse of which he was accused, and for which he had been convicted by German courts.
As explained in The CountryThere are sources indicating the existence of an even more secret archive that safeguards the most serious and sensitive cases. The media have contacted the new Pope, Leo XIV, repeatedly to ask him questions about the investigation, without receiving a response. This is a common practice within the Catholic Church when dealing with pedophilia scandals. ARA also sent the previous Pope Francis the investigation into Casa Santiago, a sect that abused many young people in Barcelona during the 1980s, but there was no official response. Members of this faction of the Church escaped unscathed thanks to the cover-up by bishops and cardinals of the Archdiocese of Barcelona and procedural errors that allowed the perpetrators to go unpunished.
The sect of the House of Santiago: the scandal that the Catalan Church hid for 30 years