''Sex Crimes and the Vatican'' (2006) is a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

(39 min) presented by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

program ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

''. It aired on 1 October 2006.

Allegations

''Sex Crimes and the Vatican'' was filmed for the BBC's ''

'' documentary series. It was directed by Sarah Macdonald, filmed by David Niblock and presented by Colm O'Gorman. The film charged that the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

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 Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

before he became the Pope. ''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. 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 Vincent Gerard Nichols (born 8 November 1945) is an Catholic Church in England and Wales, English Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Westminster since 2009. He was the Archbishop of Birmingham from 2000 to 2009 and is president ...

Archbishop of Westminster The archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster, in England. The incumbent is the metropolitan of the Province of Westminster, chief metropolitan of England and Wales and, as a matter of custom, is elected presid ...

. These two cardinals are involved in abuser cover-up cases.Catholic Church abuse: Cardinal Vincent Nichols criticised over leadership
''

References

External links

*
Most Controversial Highlights in the 1962 Ottaviani Directive (English)

''Avvenire on-line'' special - L’''"inchiesta"'' Bbc su preti e pedofilia
Some articles trying to rebut alleged mistakes and bias inside the documentary. {{Abuse 2006 television films 2006 films Curial response to Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals Media coverage of Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals Documentary films about Catholicism Panorama (British TV programme) 2000s British films British documentary television films

Allegations

See also

References

External links