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	Secret Vatican Letter Exposes Catholic Church Abuse Cover up By Richard Scorer The Pannone January 21, 2011 http://blog.pannone.com/personal-injury/secret-vatican-letter-exposes-catholic-church-abuse-cover-up-626/ Victims of abuse in the Catholic church have argued for many years that the church has systematically covered up child abuse. The cover up has taken many forms: failure to report allegations to the police; using canon law rules to frustrate criminal investigations; telling victims that any investigation risks putting the victims' name into the public domain; moving paedophile priests to different parishes to hush up scandal. All these things have been proven in individual cases, but proving a systematic cover up at the highest levels of the church has been more difficult- the Catholic church is an incredibly secretive organisation and many of its most important internal documents remain buried in Vatican archives, hidden from public scrutiny. However, a confidential letter dated January 31st, 1997, addressed to the Irish Catholic hierarchy and signed by Archbishop Luciano Storero, who was Pope John Paul II's envoy to Ireland, now seems to provide irrefutable proof. The letter was a response to new child protection policies put in place by a commission of Irish bishops. The policies included an obligation to report abuse allegations to the police. The letter states that in following this new policy, the bishops would be breaching canon law. Not only that, but the letter warned that implementing punishments which were outside of canon law would likely end with the Vatican overturning the decision. The letter is clear evidence that the Vatican did not want Catholic bishops in Ireland to involve the authorities in the investigation of child abuse; they wanted these scandals to be dealt with by the church alone. In other words, covered up. The letter bears out the claim made by Geoffrey Robertson QC, in his book The Case of The Pope, that the church has tried to operate a 'parallel system of law' outside basic legal norms for the investigation of child abuse. If you or a member of your family have suffered from physical or sexual abuse or injury call our specialist abuse compensation personal injury solicitors on 0800 0384 384 during business hours and a specialist abuse compensation personal injury lawyer can discuss your case
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