WEBVTT 00:04.080 --> 00:05.240 Do you 00:15.440 --> 00:17.440 remember how you think you look when you abuse? 00:19.000 --> 00:21.480 When you are actually doing the physical sexual act. 00:24.700 --> 00:25.860 Okay, um... 00:25.860 --> 00:27.400 Can you go to that person all over? 00:30.960 --> 00:32.160 That's that person there. 00:34.840 --> 00:38.920 This is Father Oliver O'Grady, a former Catholic priest. 00:39.400 --> 00:41.720 The church knew he was a child abuser. 00:43.280 --> 00:46.300 How about how you would greet that little girl you were grooming? 00:46.580 --> 00:47.860 Just use the name Sally. 00:48.320 --> 00:49.480 Hi Sally, how are you doing? 00:50.940 --> 00:52.300 Come here, I want to give you a hug. 00:54.120 --> 00:55.600 You're a sweetheart, you know that. 00:55.980 --> 00:57.000 Very special to me. 00:58.320 --> 00:59.180 I like you a lot. 01:01.780 --> 01:05.880 Instead of reporting O'Grady, the church hid him from the authorities. 01:06.640 --> 01:09.980 No mistake, but part of a secret church directive. 01:10.900 --> 01:15.280 The man responsible for enforcing it was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. 01:16.300 --> 01:18.420 Now, Pope Benedict XVI. 01:26.140 --> 01:28.020 County Wexford in Ireland. 01:29.540 --> 01:34.200 The Diocese of Ferns is a strip of towns and villages sprinkled along a rugged 01:34.200 --> 01:34.900 coastline. 01:37.300 --> 01:42.620 Four years ago, this priest, Father Sean Fortune, was at the centre of Ireland's 01:42.620 --> 01:44.240 biggest child abuse inquiry. 01:46.480 --> 01:52.100 The scandal exposed details of a secret Vatican decree which seemed to shelter the 01:52.100 --> 01:55.060 perpetrators and silence the victims of abuse. 01:58.500 --> 02:00.720 Colm O'Gorman was one of its victims. 02:02.300 --> 02:06.760 He returned to his hometown in Ferns to try to come to terms with his past. 02:08.660 --> 02:13.200 When he was 14 years old, Colm was raped by Father Sean Fortune. 02:14.420 --> 02:19.200 On Sunday mornings, after Fortune had abused me, he'd leave me in his bed, 02:19.680 --> 02:24.940 in the bedroom in the house there, and come down and say First Mass. 02:24.940 --> 02:34.360 And I remember that he used to come back after saying First Mass and sometimes 02:37.260 --> 02:38.380 abuse me again. 02:39.480 --> 02:42.160 And then I'd have to go downstairs with him and have breakfast. 02:43.140 --> 02:47.020 And then come down here for the second Mass and sit and watch him say Mass. 02:47.680 --> 02:52.280 The church knew Father Fortune was a paedophile, but failed to inform the 02:52.280 --> 02:52.640 police. 02:53.080 --> 02:55.480 Instead, it moved him from parish to parish. 02:56.660 --> 03:02.060 He was finally exposed and killed himself on the eve of his criminal trial. 03:03.220 --> 03:07.360 Along with the BBC, Colm began investigating who'd been responsible for 03:07.360 --> 03:08.620 helping him evade detection. 03:10.540 --> 03:15.680 It turned out to be the most senior church figure in the diocese, the Bishop of 03:15.680 --> 03:17.560 Ferns, Dr. Brendan Comersky. 03:18.040 --> 03:19.040 We confronted him. 03:20.020 --> 03:21.480 We will survive. 03:21.600 --> 03:22.040 How are you? 03:22.080 --> 03:22.800 I'm fine, thanks. 03:22.900 --> 03:23.820 Sarah MacDonald, BBC. 03:23.820 --> 03:24.620 Sarah, how are you? 03:24.700 --> 03:25.580 I'm very well, thank you. 03:25.960 --> 03:28.240 I've just come to ask you just a question about Sean Fortune. 03:28.440 --> 03:29.620 I'm going to have Mass at half-past. 03:29.620 --> 03:33.820 Why didn't you stop Sean Fortune abusing young boys? 03:35.080 --> 03:39.120 When he was brought to my attention, I moved him out of the parish and sent him 03:39.120 --> 03:40.980 on treatment for two years. 03:41.000 --> 03:43.540 Not for six years you didn't move him out of the parish. 03:43.900 --> 03:45.160 Why didn't you stop him? 03:45.160 --> 03:45.900 Thank you very much. 03:46.140 --> 03:47.960 Why didn't you stop him, Bishop Comersky? 03:47.960 --> 03:48.960 Thank you. 03:52.480 --> 03:56.820 Within weeks of that denial, Bishop Comersky was summoned to Rome. 03:57.280 --> 04:02.200 On Thursday last, I attended my resignation as Bishop of Ferns to Pope 04:02.200 --> 04:02.800 John Paul. 04:04.640 --> 04:08.580 I travelled to Rome later this week in the furtherance of that process. 04:14.380 --> 04:16.480 Bishop Comersky had gone. 04:16.960 --> 04:19.620 But in Ferns, more stories of abuse followed. 04:21.740 --> 04:26.600 Colm is now director of one of Ireland's largest charities supporting victims of 04:26.600 --> 04:27.320 child abuse. 04:27.800 --> 04:30.940 He campaigned for a government inquiry and got it. 04:33.160 --> 04:37.720 In October last year, when the Ferns report was published, it exposed a 04:37.720 --> 04:40.480 cover-up involving more than just one priest. 04:42.360 --> 04:44.960 The Ferns report makes disturbing reading. 04:45.640 --> 04:50.640 It details allegations of the rape and abuse of over 100 girls and boys made 04:50.640 --> 04:54.160 against 26 priests from this small rural diocese. 04:54.160 --> 04:58.580 It says that there was a culture of secrecy and a fear of scandal that led 04:58.580 --> 05:03.200 bishops to place the interests of the Catholic Church ahead of the safety of 05:03.200 --> 05:03.560 children. 05:05.480 --> 05:10.460 The report was the first to link the Church's behaviour to a secret Vatican 05:10.460 --> 05:12.880 decree for dealing with paedophile priests. 05:13.660 --> 05:18.360 The more Colm meets other Ferns victims, the more convinced he's become that the 05:18.360 --> 05:21.900 decree has been used to silence their allegations of abuse. 05:25.020 --> 05:30.620 I'm looking here at the room that I was in 40... nearly 41 years ago. 05:31.100 --> 05:34.840 That's four decades and I'm still remembering what happened inside, 05:35.040 --> 05:35.980 under that roof. 05:36.780 --> 05:42.220 The peace and quiet of a Saturday afternoon in that room, behind that 05:42.220 --> 05:42.640 window. 05:43.540 --> 05:47.700 Aidan Doyle was educated at a Catholic school run by priests. 05:47.700 --> 05:55.100 His terror struck at approximately 3.10pm when he decided to come in and, 05:55.620 --> 05:58.580 as he put it, help me with the practising of my music. 06:00.480 --> 06:03.960 Then a moment later, everything changes. 06:06.580 --> 06:09.000 I was hauled back down onto the bed. 06:09.000 --> 06:15.720 I was told to lie down on the bed with him, on the bed where I was made to grope 06:15.720 --> 06:18.660 his private area. 06:20.940 --> 06:27.000 I was then... I was then mauled, really. 06:27.920 --> 06:33.760 It was, you're going to be intimate with me, you're going to get closer to me, 06:34.140 --> 06:36.180 you're going to be my special person. 06:36.180 --> 06:39.180 I think all my hopes and dreams went then. 06:39.800 --> 06:43.820 It was just a question of when, how, will it ever stop? 06:45.720 --> 06:48.960 After the sexual assault, Aidan ran from the room. 06:49.580 --> 06:51.260 He told another priest what had happened. 06:51.840 --> 06:55.620 But instead of going to the authorities, the priest invoked one of the most 06:55.620 --> 07:00.460 powerful tenets of the Catholic faith, to bar Aidan, or his abuser, from ever 07:00.460 --> 07:01.280 speaking out. 07:01.280 --> 07:07.480 He said to me, I'm going to apply the seal of confession to you, so that you must 07:07.480 --> 07:11.160 never talk about this, and it will be kept secret. 07:11.320 --> 07:16.460 And I remember saying that, that evening, that why should I have to keep quiet about 07:16.460 --> 07:19.340 something that I hadn't initiated? 07:27.020 --> 07:31.520 Aidan didn't know it, but an oath of silence was part of the secret church 07:31.520 --> 07:34.220 decree called Cremon Solicitationis. 07:35.660 --> 07:40.940 The directive was written in 1962, and Catholic bishops worldwide are ordered 07:40.940 --> 07:43.080 to keep it locked away in the church safe. 07:44.420 --> 07:48.320 It instructs them on how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the 07:48.320 --> 07:48.900 confessional. 07:50.640 --> 07:56.420 But it also deals with any obscene external acts with youths of either sex, 07:56.640 --> 07:57.620 child abuse. 08:01.720 --> 08:06.820 Originally written in Latin, it imposes the strictest oath of secrecy on the child 08:06.820 --> 08:10.600 victim, the priest dealing with the allegation, and any witnesses. 08:12.020 --> 08:16.240 Breaking that oath means instant banishment from the Catholic Church, 08:16.840 --> 08:17.880 excommunication. 08:19.620 --> 08:24.440 I was told that, simply told, you don't talk about this again, it's over, 08:24.700 --> 08:25.500 you'll get over it. 08:26.060 --> 08:30.140 It'll fade away in time, it'll go away, you've nothing to worry about. 08:30.500 --> 08:31.700 You know, it's all about forgiveness. 08:33.000 --> 08:38.300 It's all about forgiving your offender as well as the offender forgiving me. 08:38.300 --> 08:41.200 They were judge, jury, and everything else. 08:41.720 --> 08:49.140 I didn't have any opportunity to receive understanding. 08:49.560 --> 08:51.200 There was no understanding brought about. 08:51.800 --> 08:53.660 I didn't know what this meant. 08:53.760 --> 08:56.560 Other than that, I must never talk about it again. 09:06.220 --> 09:11.880 Aidan was so intimidated, he hasn't spoken of what happened for 40 years until now. 09:12.380 --> 09:14.360 His abuser has never been punished. 09:21.040 --> 09:26.320 To uncover the significance of Crimen Solicitationis, Colm goes to meet Father 09:26.320 --> 09:27.980 Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer. 09:27.980 --> 09:33.520 Once a Vatican high flyer, then he criticised the Church's handling of child 09:33.520 --> 09:34.840 abuse and was sacked. 09:37.040 --> 09:43.480 Crimen Solicitationis is indicative of a worldwide policy of absolute secrecy and 09:43.480 --> 09:47.440 control of all cases of sexual abuse by the clergy. 09:47.440 --> 09:57.300 But what you really have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases 09:57.300 --> 10:02.380 of child sexual abuse by the clergy, to punish those who would call attention 10:02.380 --> 10:05.400 to these crimes by churchmen. 10:06.340 --> 10:11.140 You've got a written policy that says the Vatican will control these situations. 10:11.380 --> 10:17.580 And you also have, I think, clear written evidence of the fact that all they are 10:17.580 --> 10:20.640 concerned about is containing and controlling the problem. 10:21.620 --> 10:26.340 Nowhere in any of these documents does it say anything about helping the victims. 10:26.340 --> 10:31.420 The only thing it does is say that they can impose fear on the victims and punish 10:31.420 --> 10:35.160 the victims for discussing or disclosing what had happened to them. 10:36.420 --> 10:40.900 The procedure was intended to protect a priest's reputation until the Church had 10:40.900 --> 10:41.420 investigated. 10:42.100 --> 10:45.620 But in practice, it can offer a blueprint for cover-ups. 10:47.880 --> 10:56.500 The man in charge of enforcing it for 20 years was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 10:56.860 --> 10:58.680 the man made Pope last year. 10:59.900 --> 11:04.020 In 2001, he created the successor to the decree. 11:04.620 --> 11:09.840 In spirit, it was the same, over-arching secrecy with a threat of excommunication. 11:10.840 --> 11:13.620 He sent a copy to every bishop in the world. 11:14.380 --> 11:19.200 But now, he ordered that the Vatican must have what he calls exclusive competence. 11:19.980 --> 11:25.200 In other words, all child abuse allegations must go exclusively to Rome. 11:26.600 --> 11:30.180 It's all controlled by the Vatican, and at the top of the Vatican is the Pope. 11:31.200 --> 11:36.540 So, Joseph Ratzinger was at the middle of this for most of the years that Cremen was 11:36.540 --> 11:37.040 enforced. 11:37.440 --> 11:40.160 He created the successor to Cremen, and now he's the Pope. 11:40.540 --> 11:45.500 This all says that the policy and the systematic approach has not changed. 11:48.740 --> 11:53.520 Cardinal Ratzinger's new decree was a missed opportunity to modernize the 11:53.520 --> 11:57.820 Church's approach, just as its biggest scandal was about to break in America. 11:59.500 --> 12:04.200 Columns travel there to discover whether these were isolated cases sadly 12:04.200 --> 12:07.840 mishandled, or a Vatican policy of cover-up. 12:08.960 --> 12:13.260 At the same time as the scandals were erupting in Ireland in 2002, hundreds of 12:13.260 --> 12:15.240 cases were emerging here in the United States. 12:17.060 --> 12:22.440 A US report tells us that almost four and a half thousand US priests have been 12:22.440 --> 12:24.560 accused of raping or sexually abusing children. 12:25.560 --> 12:27.700 Its epicenter was Boston. 12:28.400 --> 12:33.160 The same stories repeated time and again, the Church quietly shifting accused 12:33.160 --> 12:37.740 priests from parish to parish, allegations of a systematic cover-up. 12:43.700 --> 12:48.680 Column tracks down Patrick Wall, a former Benedictine monk who became the 12:48.680 --> 12:54.620 Vatican-approved enforcer of Cremen solicitationis in his Minnesota diocese. 12:54.620 --> 12:59.520 I was part of the system that was getting chewed up and being used, deceptively, 13:00.360 --> 13:02.860 and it was a real dark night of the soul. 13:04.260 --> 13:07.720 Everything that I had trained for, you know, well over a decade to do, 13:08.280 --> 13:13.600 I found out that I wasn't working for a holy institution, but an institution that 13:13.600 --> 13:15.760 was wholly concentrated on protecting itself. 13:16.820 --> 13:21.660 When a priest was accused of sexual abuse, the abuser was slipped quietly away, 13:21.960 --> 13:23.740 and Father Patrick was moved in. 13:24.300 --> 13:28.420 Most of the cases never saw the light of day, hence we were successful. 13:29.440 --> 13:36.340 That is really the ultimate definition of success for the Church when it comes to a 13:36.340 --> 13:39.640 case of sexual abuse of a minor that no one ever finds out about it. 13:39.640 --> 13:43.420 That it gets shut down, that it's kept quiet. 13:43.640 --> 13:47.240 If a payoff is needed or some kind of a settlement is needed, it's done. 13:47.920 --> 13:54.340 We had a $7 million budget in 1996 to do such things, but the thing that we had to 13:54.340 --> 14:00.220 have was a confidentiality order where it absolutely had to be agreed that 14:00.220 --> 14:01.160 everything was quiet. 14:01.160 --> 14:06.380 And you work with the victims as best you can, but the ultimate desire is to 14:06.380 --> 14:09.200 maintain stability, peace and calm. 14:11.740 --> 14:15.860 And the biggest thing you have to do is absolutely shut down the scandal. 14:18.480 --> 14:23.080 Disillusioned, Father Patrick left the priesthood and joined lawyers acting for 14:23.080 --> 14:23.560 victims. 14:24.400 --> 14:28.820 One of his first cases was against prolific abuser Father Oliver O'Grady, 14:29.300 --> 14:31.760 ordained in Ireland but working in California. 14:31.760 --> 14:40.860 I swear by almighty God that the evidence that I shall give in this deposition will 14:40.860 --> 14:44.960 be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 14:45.960 --> 14:50.500 He gave this deposition last year in a civil lawsuit where he was accused of 14:50.500 --> 14:53.100 sodomising a child over a hundred times. 14:53.100 --> 15:02.300 If the boy was tall or fat, that wouldn't attract me. 15:03.580 --> 15:08.300 I tended to take boys that were rather slim built. 15:09.440 --> 15:14.020 I tended to be attracted to the genital area. 15:15.460 --> 15:21.680 And there was a part of me that would want to be in touch with that or to discover 15:21.680 --> 15:25.380 that, to see that, in this particular boy. 15:26.200 --> 15:31.600 He admits to at least 30 victims, both boys and girls, over two decades. 15:32.320 --> 15:36.840 What about the little girls did you find attractive? 15:40.020 --> 15:49.400 If she had a short dress or something like that I might have been tempted to and 15:49.400 --> 15:56.060 often did maybe raise her dress in a kind of subconscious way or should I say in a 15:56.060 --> 16:02.160 way that she is not aware that I am doing that but checking her out at the same 16:02.160 --> 16:02.520 time. 16:03.380 --> 16:05.760 You get a glimpse of her underwear. 16:07.120 --> 16:08.560 And did you find that arousing? 16:08.560 --> 16:09.340 I did, yes. 16:10.360 --> 16:15.000 The viewing was more attractive actually than the touching in the girl's case. 16:16.540 --> 16:19.260 How about how you would greet the little girl you were grooming? 16:19.560 --> 16:20.820 Just use the name Sally. 16:21.240 --> 16:22.480 Hi Sally, how are you doing? 16:24.080 --> 16:25.260 Come here, I want to give you a hug. 16:27.080 --> 16:28.600 You are a sweetheart, you know that. 16:28.960 --> 16:29.940 Very special to me. 16:31.280 --> 16:32.160 I like you a lot. 16:35.380 --> 16:37.280 She might respond, I like you too. 16:39.600 --> 16:44.420 And that would allow me to give a better hug to you. 16:45.740 --> 16:47.880 O'Grady was jailed for seven years. 16:48.260 --> 16:50.300 He has now been deported and lives in Ireland. 16:51.140 --> 16:55.620 His victims have now set their sights on his Bishop, the Cardinal of Los Angeles, 16:55.960 --> 16:56.680 Roger Mahoney. 16:57.200 --> 17:01.980 He now stands accused of shifting O'Grady from parish to parish to avoid scandal. 17:03.000 --> 17:07.360 Well, the Bishop knew that you had abused in 76, correct? 17:07.680 --> 17:07.980 Yes. 17:08.360 --> 17:09.860 And abused earlier, correct? 17:10.200 --> 17:10.500 Yes. 17:10.900 --> 17:14.000 So, knowing that, would you have appointed yourself a pastor? 17:16.660 --> 17:18.160 No, I would not. 17:19.660 --> 17:25.280 In 2002, the American Catholic Church responded to mounting scandal by setting 17:25.280 --> 17:28.420 up an independent body called the National Review Board. 17:28.420 --> 17:31.740 Its first job was to study the scale of the problem. 17:32.960 --> 17:38.220 One of the interesting pieces that the study found was that it wasn't epidemic in 17:38.220 --> 17:38.620 nature. 17:38.940 --> 17:43.660 It wasn't one diocese found to have more cases than another. 17:44.320 --> 17:51.640 It was endemic, in which from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, the same percentages 17:51.640 --> 17:57.260 of criminal sexual assault against minors occurred in every diocese. 17:58.500 --> 18:03.800 But the Review Board quickly hit problems, with its chairman comparing the Church's 18:03.800 --> 18:05.940 secrecy with that of the Mafia. 18:06.620 --> 18:11.040 Former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating has resigned as head of a National Review 18:11.040 --> 18:15.080 Board looking into the Catholic Church sex scandal, after serving only one year in 18:15.080 --> 18:15.660 that capacity. 18:16.120 --> 18:19.820 The contentious departure followed Keating's interview with the LA Times, 18:20.080 --> 18:23.160 where he compared some church leaders to La Casa Nostra. 18:23.160 --> 18:28.520 In his resignation letter, Keating said, quote, To resist grand jury subpoenas, 18:28.680 --> 18:32.760 to suppress the names of offending clerics, that is the model of a criminal 18:32.760 --> 18:34.780 organization, not my church. 18:36.240 --> 18:41.320 The Review Board carried on, and drew up a Child Protection Charter for the American 18:41.320 --> 18:42.280 Catholic Church. 18:42.880 --> 18:46.500 Around the Western world, similar allegations were prompting similar 18:46.500 --> 18:47.060 responses. 18:47.920 --> 18:52.520 In Britain, the Catholic Church has introduced a comprehensive regime of Child 18:52.520 --> 18:53.780 Protection Guidelines. 18:54.360 --> 18:59.320 But such national policies have been piecemeal, and the Vatican has no global 18:59.320 --> 19:02.920 Child Protection Charter in relation to abuse by priests. 19:03.900 --> 19:08.820 In America, despite the push for transparency, when media attention shifted 19:08.820 --> 19:14.280 away, the Church continued investigating allegations in secret, marginalizing the 19:14.280 --> 19:14.660 victims. 19:14.660 --> 19:21.220 We haven't seen sufficient evidence to show that we are satisfied with what has 19:21.220 --> 19:24.760 been done, and I think we're not able to trust. 19:25.360 --> 19:30.420 And that's getting reinforced periodically with the watering down of the charter, 19:31.180 --> 19:36.720 the failure of some diocese to remove priests when there's an allegation. 19:36.900 --> 19:40.460 So I think we cannot trust at this point. 19:40.460 --> 19:44.760 We would have thought that the last four years would have taught us enough, 19:45.140 --> 19:49.740 and would have taught the bishops enough to handle the situation. 19:50.240 --> 19:56.700 But we see every week, every month, something new happening that would lead 19:56.700 --> 20:01.840 you to believe that perhaps they didn't learn from the past mistakes. 20:03.180 --> 20:07.440 There's clearly a tension between the rule of law and the rule of the Church, 20:07.660 --> 20:11.080 between child protection and the orders of Cardinal Ratzinger. 20:12.180 --> 20:17.100 There's no policy to help the victims, there's absolutely no policy to help those 20:17.100 --> 20:20.700 who are trying to help the victims, and there's an unwritten policy to lie 20:20.700 --> 20:22.760 about the existence of the problem. 20:22.760 --> 20:27.020 Then as far as the perpetrators, the priests when they're discovered, 20:27.200 --> 20:31.480 the systemic response has been not to investigate and prosecute, but to move 20:31.480 --> 20:31.700 them. 20:32.340 --> 20:36.180 To move them from one place to another in a secret way and not reveal why they're 20:36.180 --> 20:36.780 being moved. 20:37.600 --> 20:42.060 So there's total disregard for the victims, total disregard for the fact that 20:42.060 --> 20:44.400 you're going to have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. 20:44.500 --> 20:47.820 Now this is just, this is not in the United States where this is happening. 20:48.300 --> 20:49.520 This is all over the world. 20:49.520 --> 20:54.060 You see the same pattern in practice no matter what country you go to. 20:58.880 --> 21:04.140 In some countries, the Catholic Church has little or no child protection procedures. 21:05.380 --> 21:11.320 And, as Colm discovers, the Vatican's sex crime decree is all that fills the vacuum 21:11.320 --> 21:13.820 for some of its most trusting followers. 21:16.180 --> 21:21.920 I'm in Brazil, the largest Catholic country on the planet, home to 125 million 21:21.920 --> 21:22.340 faithful. 21:23.260 --> 21:26.640 It may look like paradise, but scratch beneath the surface and you'll find 21:26.640 --> 21:31.620 extreme poverty, illiteracy, sex tourism and enormous child protection concerns. 21:32.380 --> 21:35.580 The Catholic Church may have been forced to learn hard lessons in the Western 21:35.580 --> 21:38.600 world, but is it applying those lessons here? 21:50.720 --> 21:56.380 Six years ago, a new priest arrived in the small, rural community of Annapolis in 21:56.380 --> 21:57.200 central Brazil. 21:57.960 --> 22:03.460 His new congregation didn't know it, but Father Tarcicio Tatio Sprecico had 22:03.460 --> 22:06.500 been charged with child abuse by police in Sao Paulo. 22:08.460 --> 22:11.620 The priest was first accused of sexual abuse in 1991. 22:12.800 --> 22:17.440 He was moved at least four times following that first allegation, and continued to 22:17.440 --> 22:19.940 abuse in each parish to which he was appointed. 22:22.020 --> 22:26.320 He finally ended up here, in this tiny and very, very impoverished community. 22:27.200 --> 22:30.580 The bishop who appointed him to this parish knew that he was facing charges of 22:30.580 --> 22:31.820 sexual abuse in Sao Paulo. 22:33.360 --> 22:36.720 He has explained since that he felt, or believed, that the priest had been 22:36.720 --> 22:37.180 cured. 22:38.240 --> 22:39.120 But he hadn't. 22:39.920 --> 22:41.240 The abuse continued. 22:41.760 --> 22:46.540 The priest moved three doors away from Donna Elza and her five-year-old grandson, 22:46.840 --> 22:47.080 Wally. 22:47.620 --> 22:49.860 He offered to give Wally guitar lessons. 22:53.440 --> 22:59.640 Early one Sunday morning, he woke me up and said, Granny, I know how to make love. 23:01.960 --> 23:04.100 I asked him, what do you mean? 23:05.540 --> 23:09.360 You are so small, you are only five, what are you talking about? 23:12.260 --> 23:17.560 And he said, if I try to tell Mommy and Daddy, they will beat me, and I'm scared. 23:17.940 --> 23:21.160 And I said, they won't beat you, tell me what has happened. 23:21.680 --> 23:24.360 And that's how I learned it was Father Tarcicio. 23:28.560 --> 23:32.900 We let the boy take guitar lessons with him because we thought he was in safe 23:32.900 --> 23:38.020 hands with a good person, with a person who speaks the words of God every day in 23:38.020 --> 23:38.500 church. 23:40.080 --> 23:45.880 I trusted the Father because I have been Catholic all my life, and I never expected 23:45.880 --> 23:47.480 that this could have happened. 23:52.540 --> 23:57.740 When the kids accost him in the street, they call him the priest's little wife, 23:58.260 --> 24:03.060 and he feels so angry, so angry that he cries and cries. 24:04.500 --> 24:07.960 He tells me often that he just wants to die. 24:19.810 --> 24:24.970 This was during the period when Cardinal Ratzinger instructed all allegations of 24:24.970 --> 24:26.710 child abuse to be sent to the Vatican. 24:27.670 --> 24:33.070 So if it knew about the criminal charges against Father Tarcicio, why did it allow 24:33.070 --> 24:37.150 him to continue working as a priest in close contact with young children? 24:45.410 --> 24:49.450 We may be thousands of miles away from Rome, but this place is directly linked to 24:49.450 --> 24:49.810 the Vatican. 24:53.040 --> 24:57.020 What gets me is it's the same story every time and every place. 25:00.980 --> 25:08.820 Bishops appoint priests who they know have abused children in the past to new 25:08.820 --> 25:11.920 parishes and new communities, and more abuse happens. 25:13.360 --> 25:15.480 This boy was abused in 2002. 25:15.860 --> 25:16.540 Think about that. 25:16.940 --> 25:21.440 2002, at exactly the same time as the scandals are kicking off in Boston, 25:21.860 --> 25:23.120 in the United States and in Ireland. 25:23.280 --> 25:27.660 At exactly the same time that bishops and the Vatican are giving us excuses for why 25:27.660 --> 25:29.860 it happened, and for what they're going to do to put it right. 25:29.960 --> 25:33.140 At exactly that time, this boy is being raped here in Brazil. 25:36.450 --> 25:38.570 So now this boy talks about wanting to die. 25:39.230 --> 25:40.450 He doesn't want to stay alive anymore. 25:40.910 --> 25:41.650 He can't handle it. 25:41.670 --> 25:42.630 He's being bullied at school. 25:45.400 --> 25:47.720 They tell him that he's the priest's little girl. 25:49.660 --> 25:51.260 And the church have done nothing. 25:51.900 --> 25:56.860 No therapy, no support, no connection, no outreach, nothing. 25:59.840 --> 26:01.320 I'm fed up to say that it's not OK. 26:07.290 --> 26:08.310 It's not OK. 26:16.260 --> 26:20.700 Despite evidence that the priest had already abused a 13-year-old boy in Sao 26:20.700 --> 26:25.540 Paulo, Dona Elsa claims she was pressured by both the church and the community to 26:25.540 --> 26:28.260 drop the allegations over her 5-year-old grandson. 26:33.080 --> 26:37.700 The church was angry with me and people in the church, people in the street were 26:37.700 --> 26:38.100 running. 26:38.620 --> 26:40.260 They were running away from me. 26:41.020 --> 26:44.420 It felt like I was excommunicated from my own community. 26:45.040 --> 26:49.180 But I wanted them to believe, like I did, in my grandson. 26:53.220 --> 26:54.880 That's the thing people don't understand. 26:55.620 --> 26:57.640 This family didn't have much, but they had their faith. 26:58.420 --> 26:59.500 Now they don't have that. 27:02.360 --> 27:04.660 There's such a great sadness inside us. 27:16.880 --> 27:21.380 I fear my boy will grow with that sadness in his mind. 27:22.100 --> 27:26.080 The boy growing with problems in his mind. 27:37.390 --> 27:39.350 It looked like the priest might get away with it again. 27:39.810 --> 27:40.690 And then this was found. 27:41.050 --> 27:41.710 It's his diary. 27:41.710 --> 27:45.430 In it he details the kind of child that he targets and how to abuse them without 27:45.430 --> 27:46.050 getting caught. 27:46.630 --> 27:47.390 I'll read you a section. 27:49.070 --> 27:51.670 Age, 7, 8, 9, 10. 27:52.690 --> 27:53.630 Sex, masculine. 27:54.470 --> 27:55.670 Social condition, poor. 27:56.470 --> 28:00.730 Family condition, preferably a son without a father, only a lonely mother or a 28:00.730 --> 28:01.010 sister. 28:01.570 --> 28:04.950 Where to look, on the streets, in schools and in families. 28:05.690 --> 28:06.650 How to attract them. 28:07.430 --> 28:10.010 Guitar lessons, choir, altar boy. 28:10.010 --> 28:13.450 Very important, ingratiate yourself with the family. 28:14.630 --> 28:15.270 Possibilities. 28:16.190 --> 28:19.150 A boy who is affectionate, calm and is appreciative. 28:19.710 --> 28:22.330 Needy of a father and has no sexual scruples. 28:23.570 --> 28:24.470 My attitudes. 28:25.130 --> 28:30.250 See what the boy is like, then ask the boy to give himself to me as payment for 28:30.250 --> 28:31.190 receiving a present. 28:36.790 --> 28:40.930 Father Tarsissio's decades of abuse were finally brought to an end. 28:41.290 --> 28:45.790 Not because of any action by Cardinal Ratzinger's Vatican office, but by the 28:45.790 --> 28:46.190 police. 28:46.930 --> 28:51.030 Last year, Father Tarsissio was jailed for 15 years. 28:57.880 --> 29:02.280 The Catholic Church has 50 million children within its worldwide 29:02.280 --> 29:03.000 congregation. 29:08.900 --> 29:11.780 Vatican has no child protection policy. 29:11.920 --> 29:16.360 The only policy they have is to protect the perpetrators. 29:17.100 --> 29:25.260 To protect the Vatican, to cover this up, to keep it as deeply buried in secrecy as 29:25.260 --> 29:30.140 possible and to prevent as much damage to the institution as possible. 29:30.740 --> 29:31.680 So it's damage control. 29:43.120 --> 29:48.020 Cardinal Ratzinger's instruction to send all allegations of child abuse to the 29:48.020 --> 29:53.440 Vatican is proving frustrating for police and social workers trying to catch and 29:53.440 --> 29:55.620 jail priests suspected of abuse. 29:57.220 --> 30:00.520 This is Father Joseph Henn, a choir master. 30:01.460 --> 30:05.360 The picture was taken during his first assignment as a young priest in Phoenix, 30:05.520 --> 30:05.960 Arizona. 30:06.740 --> 30:11.220 It was around the time he met 14-year-old altar boy, Rick Ravezzo. 30:24.780 --> 30:30.300 Once the relationship with Rick's family was secure, Father Henn's abuse began. 30:35.960 --> 30:39.420 He used to do these different things, whether it be at a funeral or a wedding or 30:39.420 --> 30:39.960 that kind of thing. 30:40.220 --> 30:41.460 And there were times when he would take us swimming. 30:42.140 --> 30:46.180 After swimming, we would go into the rectory and he would ask me to... 30:47.880 --> 30:51.780 He would ask me to move my trunks so that he could put them in the dryer. 30:52.460 --> 30:54.100 And he would take his and put them in the dryer. 30:55.000 --> 30:57.500 And he'd give me a towel, the same for him. 30:58.860 --> 31:00.160 And he told me to lay on the bed. 31:01.380 --> 31:04.500 So now he's sitting on me, facing me, and I'm facing up. 31:05.100 --> 31:10.280 And he would massage me on my chest. 31:11.220 --> 31:16.480 And when he would go down is when he would stroke me and go back up and down again. 31:16.660 --> 31:18.380 And he just did that over and over again. 31:21.760 --> 31:23.140 I wouldn't want to look at him. 31:23.520 --> 31:24.500 I didn't want to see him. 31:24.700 --> 31:26.980 I didn't want to see anything below his stomach. 31:32.880 --> 31:36.320 I didn't want to feel anything that what he was doing. 31:37.580 --> 31:39.320 So my concentration was constantly... 31:40.040 --> 31:43.660 My eyes closed and I would have my hands out because I knew his legs were there and 31:43.660 --> 31:44.380 I didn't want to touch them. 31:46.440 --> 31:52.660 And I'd just turn my head and close my eyes and put myself somewhere else and 31:52.660 --> 31:53.400 wait for him to be done. 32:08.480 --> 32:11.360 The man who dealt with his case was Rick Romley. 32:11.360 --> 32:14.680 A high profile district attorney in Phoenix. 32:15.780 --> 32:20.680 Before retiring this year, he convicted eight pedophile priests in his diocese. 32:20.980 --> 32:24.380 And uniquely, forced a written confession from the local bishop. 32:24.920 --> 32:28.600 Admitting that he knowingly hid child sexual abuse from the police. 32:29.540 --> 32:38.720 I will tell you that the secrecy, the obstruction that I saw during my 32:38.720 --> 32:44.380 investigation was unparalleled in my entire career as a DA here in Phoenix, 32:44.480 --> 32:44.780 Arizona. 32:45.420 --> 32:49.960 It was so difficult to obtain any information from the church at all. 32:49.960 --> 32:55.780 In fact, we knew of certain meetings that had taken place and yet no documentation 32:55.780 --> 33:01.560 was ever produced to be able to show that that meeting had even occurred. 33:02.260 --> 33:06.640 The Vatican's official line is that its sex crime code is purely for internal use 33:06.640 --> 33:09.280 and not intended to hinder civil investigations. 33:10.420 --> 33:13.480 You know, when we started looking at it, I mean, it was really interesting. 33:13.480 --> 33:19.260 I mean, we came across in the cans for the church that there are supposed to be 33:19.260 --> 33:24.340 secret archives to where this type of material is to be provided and not given 33:24.340 --> 33:27.680 to civil authorities, no matter what the circumstances. 33:27.680 --> 33:33.080 We had information that there was an instruction from the Denuncio, 33:33.560 --> 33:40.960 who is of ambassador status, to ship all of this incriminating type of information 33:40.960 --> 33:41.720 to him. 33:42.280 --> 33:47.640 Because under the law, we could not subpoena that material because he would 33:47.640 --> 33:50.620 have protected status as an ambassador from the Vatican. 33:51.220 --> 33:55.840 I think that that's really what the story is, is that the church, the church's 33:55.840 --> 33:58.640 failure to acknowledge such a serious problem. 33:59.180 --> 34:02.060 But more than that, it is not a passiveness. 34:02.700 --> 34:09.080 It was an openly obstructive way of not allowing civil authorities to try to stop 34:09.080 --> 34:10.160 the abuse within the church. 34:10.520 --> 34:13.160 I mean, they fought us every step of the way. 34:13.920 --> 34:19.300 His toughest battle involved Father Hen and two other priests who fled abroad to 34:19.300 --> 34:20.740 escape American prosecutors. 34:21.640 --> 34:27.540 I knew that these priests owed a vow of obedience to Rome, to the Vatican. 34:28.100 --> 34:32.760 And so I decided to write Rome and ask them, now that formal charges had been 34:32.760 --> 34:37.240 brought, to instruct them to follow their orders and to come back and surrender 34:37.240 --> 34:41.020 themselves so that the court system could take the case as we wanted it to. 34:41.960 --> 34:44.260 And I've got to tell you, I was very surprised. 34:44.500 --> 34:50.380 I had written to Cardinal Sedano, who is the Secretary of State, 34:50.480 --> 34:53.640 and I had basically asked him, could he instruct these priests to come 34:53.640 --> 34:53.960 back? 34:54.340 --> 34:56.280 And they just basically returned it. 34:56.280 --> 35:01.360 And they said, the item has been returned because the sender has refused to accept 35:01.360 --> 35:02.620 the correspondence. 35:02.800 --> 35:04.380 They did not even open it. 35:04.420 --> 35:07.160 They didn't even acknowledge or give me any type of response. 35:07.220 --> 35:08.360 They just refused to accept it. 35:08.360 --> 35:14.540 A church with supposedly the moral authority to do what is right had 35:14.540 --> 35:20.320 miserably failed one of the most fundamental things, and that's to stop the 35:20.320 --> 35:20.900 abuse of children. 35:21.060 --> 35:25.300 And they had a real opportunity here to make a powerful statement to the world. 35:25.720 --> 35:28.200 To say, everybody is accountable. 35:28.760 --> 35:30.400 To protect our children is important. 35:31.040 --> 35:32.720 And they didn't even open the envelope. 35:37.780 --> 35:42.740 Father Henn, the priest whose outings to the swimming pool with Rick Ravezzo ended 35:42.740 --> 35:48.660 in abuse, is now wanted on 13 molestation charges brought by a grand jury in the 35:48.660 --> 35:49.540 United States. 35:50.000 --> 35:51.280 But he's no longer there. 35:51.740 --> 35:57.020 He's here, in Rome, sheltered by the Vatican and fighting extradition from the 35:57.020 --> 35:59.720 headquarters of his religious order, the Salvatorians. 36:01.560 --> 36:06.800 The Vatican has not compelled him to return to America to face the charges. 36:08.520 --> 36:12.200 The most extraordinary thing about this story is that Father Henn isn't alone. 36:13.380 --> 36:13.780 A U.S. 36:13.900 --> 36:17.280 newspaper did a series of investigative reports recently called Runaway Priests, 36:17.860 --> 36:20.740 and it discovered that there are over seven U.S. 36:20.820 --> 36:25.600 priests who face allegations of child sexual abuse, living with the support of 36:25.600 --> 36:27.840 the church here, in and around the Vatican. 36:30.260 --> 36:35.020 The Vatican, the moral compass of the Catholic Church, may well be holding 36:35.020 --> 36:38.160 evidence of other child-abusing priests from around the world. 36:38.760 --> 36:42.920 But instead of cooperation and transparency, many feel the church's 36:42.920 --> 36:46.280 directives create obstruction and cover-up in practice. 36:46.980 --> 36:49.500 There's one man who has the power to change that. 36:49.500 --> 36:54.000 Cardinal Ratzinger, now as Pope, could tomorrow get up and say, 36:54.600 --> 36:59.460 here's the policy throughout the church, full disclosure to the civil authorities, 37:00.060 --> 37:03.180 absolute isolation and dismissal of any convicted cleric. 37:03.440 --> 37:07.720 Complete openness and transparency, complete openness of all financial 37:07.720 --> 37:12.860 situations, stop all barriers to the legal process, completely cooperate with the 37:12.860 --> 37:13.900 civil authorities everywhere. 37:14.060 --> 37:14.660 He could do that. 37:16.140 --> 37:20.820 The Vatican has failed to respond to repeated requests for an interview about 37:20.820 --> 37:22.780 the cases featured in this film. 37:24.940 --> 37:29.600 Father Joseph Penn has lost his fight against extradition to the U.S. 37:29.920 --> 37:33.820 He's since fled the Salvatorean headquarters in Rome, where he was under 37:33.820 --> 37:37.920 house arrest, and is believed to be hiding somewhere in Italy. 37:38.560 --> 37:40.760 There's an international warrant out for his arrest. 37:42.480 --> 37:47.380 Former Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady served seven years in an American prison 37:47.380 --> 37:48.720 for child sex abuse. 37:49.260 --> 37:54.260 Despite American psychiatrists labeling him a serial abuser who needed lifelong 37:54.260 --> 37:57.800 monitoring, he was deported to his native island in 2001. 38:00.120 --> 38:04.820 Because he offended in the U.S., O'Grady does not appear on the Irish Sex 38:04.820 --> 38:09.160 Offenders Register, and there are no restrictions on his access to children. 38:10.980 --> 38:17.560 So the abuse and the molestation was almost a full-time avocation during your 38:17.560 --> 38:18.340 entire priesthood? 38:19.980 --> 38:25.620 I would say it was a significant part of the early priesthood. 38:26.520 --> 38:30.860 Of the victims you did molest, what percentage do you think were boys and 38:30.860 --> 38:31.560 what were girls? 38:32.600 --> 38:36.340 I think I'd say three-quarters boys, one-quarter girls. 38:37.140 --> 38:40.480 What else happened to you as a consequence of abusing? 38:41.420 --> 38:42.500 Actually, nothing happened. 38:42.760 --> 38:43.360 Life continued. 38:46.360 --> 38:48.840 Next week, the price of blood. 38:49.360 --> 38:54.200 Panorama investigates David Mills, husband of Cabinet Minister Tessa Jowell. 38:54.400 --> 38:58.580 He's accused of a corrupt relationship with Italy's former Prime Minister, 38:58.980 --> 39:03.540 and a role in a public health scandal involving contaminated human blood. 39:17.810 --> 39:22.350 If you've been affected by any of the issues in this programme and would like to 39:22.350 --> 39:27.990 talk to someone in confidence, please call the BBC Action Line on 0800 39:27.990 --> 39:31.530 933 193. 39:32.250 --> 39:35.270 Lines are open from 7.30am until midnight. 39:35.730 --> 39:37.550 Calls are free and confidential.