Rape of Children Vatican Favours Coverup

A five-page document drawn up by Cardinal William Levada, the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, concluded that the responsibility for dealing with any child abuse cases found within the Church "belongs in the first place to bishops". In the past, there have been repeated accusations of cover-ups by the church and bishops have been found to have shielded child abusers.




The Vatican claimed the document, which will be circulated to all clergy worldwide, was "an important new step" to cleanse the Church of its recurring child abuse scandals and promised that the church would cooperate the police in any official inquiries.



"This document is simply meaningless words - they have been forced to act but it is not enough," said Marco Lodi Rizzini, a spokesman for an Italian victim of abuse by priests group. "The Vatican has said it will cooperate with the authorities before, but only because they have been forced to."



Mr Rizzini pointed to a case that has just emerged in the northern Italian city of Genoa where a 50-year-old priest has been arrested by police investigating a drugs and sex ring. Although Church leaders immediately suspended Father Riccardo Seppia, there were claims that the Vatican had been warned of his behaviour in the past. Piercarlo Casassa, a retired priest, said:"I told the Church authorities about him in 1994 but I was ignored. I told them he was not the right person to have around youngsters but no one listened to me".



Maeve Lewis, of the One in Four support group in Dublin, said she welcomed the new universal guidelines but that bishops have little expertise or experience in recognising child abuse. "We have had several cases in Ireland where the Church was slow to respond hiding behind the data protection act and it is just not acceptable that reporting an allegation is at the discretion of a bishop," she said.