Sex Crimes and the Vatican

Sex Crimes and the Vatican (2006) is a documentary film (39 min) presented by the BBC program Panorama. It aired on 1 October 2006.

Allegations

Sex Crimes and the Vatican was filmed for the BBC's Panorama documentary series. It was directed by Sarah Macdonald, filmed by David Niblock and presented by Colm O'Gorman. The film charged that the Vatican used a secret document, Crimen sollicitationis, to silence allegations of sexual abuse by priests and that Crimen sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger before he became the Pope.[1]

Crimen sollicitationis, subtitled "On the Manner of Proceeding in Cases of the Crime of Solicitation", is based on an earlier instruction of 1922 and was primarily concerned with dealing with the offense of sexual solicitation in Confession. Seventy of the seventy-four paragraphs dealt with establishing internal procedures for handling such cases in the curial court. The procedures having been established, they were then extended to included cases regarding homosexual conduct, any obscene act with preadolescent children, or animals, regardless if any of the prescribed activity had to do with the sacrament of penance.[2]

Many Catholic Bishops, priests and laity expressed anger at what they perceived as a clear bias against the church. They state that the program made no effort to highlight the efforts made by the church in recent years to combat sex abuse, particularly the efforts taken by the English and Welsh Catholic Church under the leaderships of both Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor and Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. These two cardinals are involved in abuser cover-up cases.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

See also

References
  1. "Sex crimes and the Vatican". BBC News. 29 September 2006. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  2. Crimen sollicitationis, §§ 71-73, CDF, 16 March 1962
  3. "BBC - Radio 4 - Today - Paedophilia in the Catholic Church". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  4. "BBC News | UK | Archbishop defends paedophile move". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  5. McDonald, By Helen Studd, Ruth Gledhill and Claire. "Child abuse 'hotspots' uncovered in five Catholic dioceses". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 24 November 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. "Church failed to act on child sex abuse". Daily Telegraph. London, UK. 20 May 2009. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
  7. Bowcott, Owen (10 November 2020). "Child sexual abuse in Catholic church was 'swept under the carpet', inquiry finds". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  8. Catholic Church abuse: Cardinal Vincent Nichols criticised over leadership Archived 10 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine BBC
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