HOUSTON - A 40-year-old document supposedly explaining how to deal with sex abuse in the Catholic Church may be the smoking gun that could prove every Catholic diocese in the world was under direct orders from the Vatican to keep allegations of sexual abuse secret.
According to ABC affiliate KTRK-TV, a clergyman in Germany with close ties to the Vatican gave the document to Houston attorney Daniel Shea. Shea said the document dated back to 1962 and called for secret hearings within the clergy to deal with any accusations against the priesthood involving sexual abuse of a minor.
The television station said the first instruction on the document says, "this text is to be diligently stored in the secret archives of the curia as strictly confidential. Nor is it to be published nor added to with any commentaries."
Shea said the document acknowledges sexual abuse of a minor as a crime, and said current documents from the Catholic Church still refer to these secret hearings.
"They understand fully that this is criminal conduct, yet they're hiding it by conducting secret church trials," he said.
According to the news report, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops says the 1962 document is only type-specific to what happens during the sacrament of confession.
