Secrets of the Vatican ： The Scandal They Tried to Bury

It's a multinational of a particular kind, one you all know. Some of you may even visit it. It's present across the globe and on the corner of your street. The Catholic Church. With its hierarchy, its communication, and its very darkest secret, pedophilia. In Australia, 7% of priests are thought to have sexually abused minors, 4% in the United States. We discovered that clergymen found guilty of pedophilia are still active, often in contact with children. Thanks to internal documents, we'll reveal how church leaders protect priests accused of sexually abusing minors. By sending them from country to country, notably in Africa. Our investigation into these international exiles took us to Cameroon, to Argentina, to the United States, to France, and to Italy. During our travels, we established this unprecedented map that regarded the transfers of priests involved in cases of pedophilia. And the victims numbered tens of thousands, marked with scars for the rest of their lives. Our investigations would lead us all the way to Pope Francis. We'll reveal how, when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he tried to influence the Argentine Justice Department. We investigated the mysteries of the church where, on the altar of truth, God's law seems to prevail over that of men. Our inquiry into the international transfers of priests accused of pedophilia begins in the United States. We're in Chicago, in the shadow of this cathedral, to witness a very unique kind of protest. All are victims of pedophile priests. In their hands, portraits of them as children when they were abused. In the U.S., 16,000 people have already lodged complaints for sexual abuse against Catholic priests. These victims have joined forces for the annual conference of their support group, SNAP, Survivor Network of Those Abused by Priests. Hello, everybody. Great to see you again. And I think, it looks like we've got a bigger group than last year, which is even better news. So, how many of you are here for the first time? Whoo! That looks like 40%. Remember that all of us here are survivors of sexual assaults and betrayals during our youth. So, if you're looking for an opportunity to share your experience with people who truly get it, this is the place. Recently, the organization has seen abuse victims from all over the world join its ranks. It has become the Internationale of Those Abused by the Church. My name is Miguel, I'm 34 years old, and I'm a survivor of sexual abuse by priests from Barcelona, Spain. Where are you from? Santiago, Chile. I'm from Germany, from Berlin. I was sexually abused in Mexico when I was 14 years old. I'm actually from the Philippines. I was abused by a Jesuit for three years. I was 15 years old. I was abused as a teen for a long period of time. It was with an oblate priest, his name was Jack McCann, in Vancouver, Canada. Accounts from over 50 countries. At the end of the conference, we talked to one of the activists, Anne Barrett Doyle. Thanks to reports from victims, SNAP is the only group to have been able to establish a list of priests worldwide allegedly involved in pedophilia cases. We only include those priests who have been accused of child sexual abuse in a credible public document. It has to be either a court document that's publicly accessible or a mainstream news outlet. She began her work 14 years ago. In the States, these activists publish the names and photos of accused priests on the Internet to try to ensure they never come into contact with children again. This is just the letter A, and it just keeps going. How many names at the end, so far? So, all in the entire database, we have 4,400 names. Do you have any French names in the list? We do have several. So, Father Revoir is a very troubling case because he abused this young boy and Mario's Inuit boy did report the abuse, eventually within statute, but Revoir was fled. In 1993, it somehow spirited him back to France, where he lives safely now. That's not the case of his victim, who took his own life in December of 2012. To avoid justice, one French priest accused of the sexual abuse of minors is thought to have fled Canada and be hiding in France. The story barely seems credible. We contacted the sister of one of the priest's presumed victims. Thérésie Tungalig speaks to us from northern Canada, deep in Inuit territory. Her brother Mario Tungalig committed suicide five years ago. He had filed a complaint against the French priest. She has sent us some old photos of her and her kid brother and one of Father Revoir. How old will be Mario today? He will be 58 today. Do you think what happened to him when he was a child was responsible about why he decided to die? Of course. Of course. Because he never left him. Even though he became an old dog, he could not sleep in the dark. He was still afraid. Do you think Mario was the only victim of Mr. Revoir? No. I know some more people. He has ruined so many people's lives. This man doesn't deserve to be free. If we can get Revoir behind bars on Canadian soil, it will be a message to the other priests who think they might get away with things like this. We get our hands on the warrant issued to the Canadian police for Father Revoir's arrest. They've been after the priest since 1998. On it, we discover the name of Marius, but also two other boys, made anonymous by the police with black lines. A girl of 14 is also among the alleged victims. In all, the priest is thought to have abused four children. Finally, in the top left-hand corner, a vital piece of information. The name of the town where the priest is believed to be hiding, Gou in France. A small town in the Beauclouse where there's a monastery belonging to his community. So we catch the train to Strasbourg. That's right, because in the meantime, we've got hold of some internal documents from his community. Father Revoir has been transferred several times. After Ariat in Canada, he didn't stay in Gou, as presumed by the Canadian police. He apparently went next to Turin, near Lyon, and that's where we lost track of him. But after several months of inquiries, during a phone call, a priest from a prairie where Father Revoir had stayed unwittingly gave us a new lead. But he was at your place until recently, wasn't he? Well, yes, a year ago, he was there. It's right here. The priest, wanted by the Canadian police for 19 years for sexually abusing four children, seemingly lives here, in Strasbourg, among his religious community. From now on, we'll film with a hidden camera. Hello, Mr. Revoir. Mr. Revoir? Our information was correct. The priest is here, at the end of the corridor. You're not supposed to know, because several children have spoken about you, especially about sexual abuse. And so we wanted to have your truth on this, because it's important to have the truth of what we're talking about. Don't you want to say a few words? No. Does the name of Marius Tungalik mean anything to you? I think so, yes. I don't know what village it was, but... We show him the photo of the young Inuit, Marius Tungalik. Do you know that you're under arrest? No. Have you reported this to the French authorities? No, I haven't. I'll stop there. I'll ask you a very simple question. Have you ever sexually abused children? I won't answer that. But why? Because you're not my confessor. But you know that the truth will set you free. You know the truth of life. Yes, I do. I joined the monastery as a very idealistic 20-year-old and thought I was going to be a monk, a priest, and unfortunately it didn't work out that way because so many sex abuse cases came forward that I ended up actually being ordained early to go work on and follow sex abusers who were being withdrawn. And at that point, at the age of 32, I had to make a moral decision. Am I going to support this institution? Am I part of this? Or do I have to find a different path? And that's when I chose to take a different path and to help survive. Since then, Patrick Wall has become a whistleblower, an expert called on to testify in over 2,000 cases of priests accused of sexual abuse. According to him, the Catholic Church has developed a system to exfiltrate pedophile priests. That's the same pattern we've seen in Australia. It's the same pattern we've seen in the United States. It's the same pattern we've seen in Canada. It's the same pattern in Ireland, in England, in Italy. It's honestly, it's in the DNA of the Roman Catholic system. And I like to call this the geographic solution. So what the bishop needs to do then, he finds out that the priest is a perpetrator. And then at that point, he simply moves him to a different spot where the previous scandal is not known. And if it's not enough? You move him outside the country. That's the geographic solution. You can move him from continent to continent as long as he can speak the language that is needed, it looks legitimate, and so he's going to be accepted without question. That's where the danger comes in. An anonymous source would provide us with proof of the geographical solution described by Patrick Wall. One evening, we received dozens of internal documents from the community of St. John, 500 brothers present throughout the world. This French community is highly controversial. It has the highest number of priests found guilty of pedophilia in recent years, three since 2012. And there are thought to have been more cases of sexual abuse. It's all there in black and white. As we turn the pages, we get a strange feeling. The community seems to have become a master in the art of the international displacement of priests suspected of sexually abusing children. Among the pile of documents from the community of St. John, one recent letter draws our attention and sends us rushing to the airport. Here's the letter, signed by a high-ranking church official, this archbishop from Cameroon. He wrote to the head of the community of St. John, having decided to exclude from diocese several St. John priests. He explained himself. What had these French priests done to incur the wrath of an archbishop? In Cameroon, a mostly Catholic country, the community of St. John is an institution. The brothers run one of the biggest high schools in Yaoundé, the capital. But in Berthoua, in the east of the country, the brothers of St. John have left town. Until 2014, they oversaw this cathedral, the biggest in the region. We go to see the archbishop, the one who asked the St. John priests to leave. Monseigneur Atanga, one of the African representatives of the Vatican. I was in a situation of extreme gravity. The brothers were about to be dragged in front of the courts, at the risk of tarnishing the image of our church. I weighed all my weight so that we wouldn't get there. Did you try to hide the facts so that the image of the church would not be tarnished? No, I never hide the facts. I don't hide anything. What does it mean when you say that the brothers were about to be dragged in front of the courts, at the risk of tarnishing the image of our church? I wouldn't comment on this letter. And this letter shouldn't be here. We try to dig deeper, but... No, no, no, I don't comment on the letter. I don't say anything about it. No, no, no, I don't comment. That's why I say I don't comment. I apologize, but that's how it is. So, no comment? No comment. You shouldn't have this letter. I shouldn't have this letter? This letter comes from a confidential letter, so... Yes, thanks for your precious comments, Your Grace, but they weren't exactly helpful. At the Cathedral of Betua, we'll discover the reasons why the St. John brothers hurriedly left town. Another alleged case of pedophilia. The sexual abuse of a number of boys. For three days, we try to find these presumed victims. In this city, where the Catholic Church is omnipresent, it's hard to broach the subject. Finally, we find one of the kids who was supposedly abused by the priest. Today, he's 15. We show him one of the community's internal documents that we managed to procure. The mugshots of all the St. John brothers across the globe. 508 in all. This priest had indeed been posted in Betua. How many times? It's a pact of silence. After a few weeks, the boy finally admitted everything to his parents. They immediately went together to the Betua law courts to file a complaint. But here, nobody touches the Church. In Betua, the justice of men seems to serve men of God. We have an appointment with a civil servant inside the Ministry of Justice. We film discreetly. She confirms the closeness between the Church and one of the top judges. When the case is exposed, the magistrate has done everything to act discreetly. The civil servant gives us an excerpt from the victim's testimony. The name of Fr. Emmanuel appears nowhere. Instead, he's merely designated as Le Prêtre, the priest. Before leaving Betua, we meet another presumed victim. He too picks out Fr. Emmanuel from the mugshots. Where is Fr. Emmanuel now, the French priest accused of sexually abusing at least two boys? Among the community's internal documents are the postings made in 2016. Since being expelled from Betua in Cameroon, Fr. Emmanuel appears to be in Bologna, in Italy. We wait for the father outside the priory. After a few hours, he finally shows up. We film discreetly. Who did you meet there? No, it's completely false. It's a story invented by the bishop. By the bishop there? Yes. For what purpose? For a conspiracy. So he asked young people to lie? He used it. He made us sing with it. So it's a conspiracy? He used it to... How do you explain this letter? From the Archdiocese of Betua, from Joseph Atanga, the famous archbishop. Very subtle indeed. Children manipulated by the archbishop. But Fr. Emmanuel offers another explanation. They don't know each other, but they recognize you in more than 500 photos of priests from the community of Saint-Jean, saying that it was this man who sexually assaulted them. Why two? It's hard to say because they're both a bit simple. Maybe there are others. They're looking for money. Have you been questioned by the French police? Are you subject to a canonical trial? No. Nothing. Nothing happened. According to Fr. Emmanuel, nothing happened. But why then was he shipped out of Cameroon when he could have been posted to another diocese in the country? In Boulogne, his new superior explains. He doesn't know we're filming. He's not in contact with any criminals. We should have preventive measures in case... He's in a situation where, in any case, de facto, it's a shelter. So the community of Saint-Jean shipped Fr. Emmanuel off to Boulogne so he wouldn't be anywhere near any kids. But when we leave the priory, two posters catch our eye. Teatro San Salvatore and Teatro, a theatre inside the priory. It's then that the penny drops. After all this to-ing and fro-ing in the world of Saint-Jean, we had a few questions for the head of the community. On the case in Vertu and Cameroon, but also on the other documents in our hands. The Saint-Jean public relations director emailed us. After long reflection, we prefer to decline your request for an interview. Regarding the departure of the brothers from the cathedral in Vertua, we had every reason to believe that these rumors were ungrounded. The same conclusion that the local police and justice obviously reached because they pressed no charges after their investigation. I send you cordial greetings and my prayers. Not exactly a satisfactory reply. So we check up on the schedule of the head of the community of Saint-Jean. He's due to fly to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia today from the Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris. We wait for brother Thomas Joachim with a sign to grab his attention. And it works. Oui, oui, oui. Yes, yes, yes. Despite our frequent requests, the community of Saint-Jean refused to grant us an interview. During our investigation, we discovered other examples of the international transfer of priests accused of pedophilia. We could have chosen to tell you about this priest from Lyon who after being accused of sexual abuse by one young teenager was moved to Guinea. Or this one with an international arrest warrant for sexually abusing children in France hanging over his head now in refuge in Lebanon. Or this one, an Italian, At the heart of the Catholic Church, how many cases are there of priests moved from country to country due to suspicions of sexual abuse on minors? We tried to add them up. Over three months, we contacted the main victims' groups around the world. Each gave us their list of transferred priests. Then we called whistleblowers, attorneys, judges, and all cross-checked with local newspaper articles. We only took into account priests moved since 1990. There were so many cases, we had to see this on the big screen. So we booked the biggest panoramic movie theater in Paris. We compiled all of the data onto a map. To discover it with us is Fr. Joulin. A French clergyman with a unique profile. He's both a priest and a therapist. He sees sexual abuse victims, but also the priests accused of it. That's right, and he's the only French man of the cloth to accept our invitation. You can see the arrows on the map. Moved means mutated, because of pedophilia. Let's watch. Did you expect so many movements on this map and so many priests moved or mutated because of pedophilia? So many moved and mutated priests... No, not... It seemed to me like something from another age. A century ago, but it doesn't seem to be the case. No, not at all. Since 1990, we've counted 95 mutations of priests involved in pedophilia cases. And we're still far from having access to all the data. In all, they would have abused 802 victims. So this figure is also very important. Yes, 802 victims could have been avoided. We have the feeling that we're dealing with a system of exfiltration of pedophile priests or suspects. There's a dynamic of moving people away. But here we're in other countries, in other continents. And there's still this notion that if these people were recognized as pedophiles or as perpetrators of sexual abuse in the countries where they're from, sending them abroad is completely irresponsible. It's criminal. We're going to talk about a very specific case that we discovered during this investigation. The father's case, Nicolas. We're going to discover it together. Accused of raping deaf children in the 1980s in Italy. He was never tried. But he was transferred to Argentina where he was recently arrested for absolutely similar crimes. This time it was in Mendoza. It's irresponsible. They're aware of this problem. And certainly not by putting him back in a situation where he'll be able to commit the same crimes that he committed in Italy. What should the Church have done? There's power in the canonical law to do something, to get this man removed from the priesthood. You're part of the white fathers, the missionaries of Africa. You'll notice that the priests suspected of pedophilia have often been mutated, moved to Africa, and you also said it, to South America, to mission areas. And I imagine that somehow it hurts you. There's still this idea that someone who was a predator for children, if they go to Africa or Latin America, it doesn't matter. Do you feel shocked? Yes, yes. It's unacceptable today. It's irresponsible, it's immature, it's all that we want. And I think that somewhere, in many events, there's such a disconnection with everything that affects sexuality, humans, others, that they can't feel the violence of a sexual abuse on a child. The person I accompanied, who told me the latest thing, she had been abused at the age of 7, and she told me at the age of 87. 80 years later, it taught her to dare to speak about this. Because for the Church, the victim is the troublemaker. It's the troublemaker. It's the one who causes the scandal. There's a deep fear of the scandal. And so, these victims are children of God. They're not... They're not enemies. They're not sub-children of God. They're not sub-categories. So, forgiveness would be good for those who have been abused, but mercy, not for the victims. What kind of system is that? It's a perverse system. And it's this system that needs to be changed. When I talk to you about combat, that's where it needs to take place. As you can imagine, after this interview, our attention turned to the Vatican, the Holy See, the place where the Church's laws are made, the place where punishments against pedophile priests are meted out. But we discovered that even inside the Vatican government, high-ranking officials have been accused of covering for priests accused of pedophilia. After several months of discussion, the Vatican chose this priest to answer our questions. Father Zollner, an advisor to the Pope on sexual abuse issues. He also sits on the Commission for the Protection of Minors, a body founded by Pope Francis two years ago. You have been appointed to this commission. What has the commission done since then? And do you think it's enough? We have people from all continents on this commission. We have experts from different fields, so psychology, psychiatry, law, international law, social work, and theology. And we try to discuss what can be next steps to help the Pope to set up new measures to be more incisive in the life of local churches. And there is still a lot to do, no? My expression for this is this is a generational task. We will not finish within two years or five years. We will have to work long-term, which means 15, 20, maybe 30 years. I wanted to show you something. These are the ten cardinals that are usually considered the most powerful of the Vatican. This is the C9, right? It's an advisory board. And here, Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine and the Faith. Among these ten cardinals, four are accused of having covered up pedophile priests. You know that, of course. Sure. What do you think of it? I have no particular knowledge about any of them. You just said to me that you knew it. I know that there are allegations, but I don't know what is the background of these cases. I am not an investigator. You want me to be more precise? Sure. George Bell is here in Australia. A few months ago, in front of the Australian Royal Commission on Sexual Abuses within the Church, he recognized knowing sexual abusers from Australian priests but did not denounce them to justice. What do you think of him being in the C9 with that story? I have been to Australia last year. I have traveled. I have been in the diocese. I met with three survivors from the school where Cardinal Pell was at that time, the vice director of the school. And Cardinal Pell will engage to cooperate with justice and to cooperate in the sense of setting up safeguarding measures in the scene. When you say he will, this is future. But he didn't denounce sexual abusers before and he is in the C9. Is it shocking for you or not? Of course it is shocking. For him to be in the C9 and not denouncing sexual abusers and minors? Yeah, sure. Francisco Erazuriz in Chile, here, documents have shown that Erazuriz has waited five years after the first victim spoke out to take action and to remove the priors. Father Karadima has been since proven guilty by the Vatican of sexual abuses. Is he still in the C9? I'm not responsible for the appointments in the C9. I'm not the one who decides on that. But what do you think? I think they will stay as long as the Pope wants them there. Thank you very much. It seems then that only the Pope has the power to punish his cardinals. So why doesn't he take stronger action? Maybe because he too faced accusations in his homeland of Argentina long before his election. When he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he apparently tried to have a pedophile priest acquitted. To understand, we took one last flight. In our baggage, this book of interviews with the Pope. On page 64, the Pope tackles the question of pedophile priests. He writes, It never happened in my diocese. On the Holy Father's word, but is it the truth? In Buenos Aires, along with God, or rather Diego Maradona, the Pope is a star. His face is everywhere. And yet, some refuse to share in this iconographic cult. In the city center, we have arranged to meet a group of victims. They were abused by priests in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. They alerted Pope Francis when he was their Archbishop. He never wants to admit it. It's a lie. Who tried? All of us. No one. All the famous people in the world. Leonardo DiCaprio also went to show him the Oscar. He opens the doors to everyone. And they don't even send us a card to say I'm sorry. I don't expect anything. I don't believe anything. And I suffered a lot. The disappointment. And it hurt me a lot that Bergoglio doesn't do anything. And everyone told me to write to him because he was going to answer me. And I suffered. I suffered a lot. And I'm very disappointed. That's it. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis was seemingly deaf to the distress of these victims. But apparently it's worse. In another case concerning other victims, some believe he willfully tried to divert the course of justice. It's the Father Grassi case, the biggest pedophilia scandal in the Argentinian church. Julio Cesar Grassi was one of the best-known priests in the country, very influential, and often in the media spotlight. He ran a huge orphanage until some of the children there lodged a complaint against him for sexual abuse. In 2009, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Still today, he's behind bars. But the Argentinian church did all in its power to have him acquitted. Juan Pablo Gallego represented Father Grassi's child victims. A trial spread over 15 years. And opposite him, the most renowned attorneys in the land, but also the Catholic Church. Don't be fooled by the cover which makes you think it's a book. This 2,800-page counter-inquiry is a confidential, internal Argentinian church legal text. Inside, the children are accused of falsifications, lies, deceit, and invention. Even their own sexual orientation is questioned. The conclusion is clear. The court's decision was wrong. Father Grassi had to be acquitted on appeal. One paragraph caught our eye. This work was commissioned in 2010 by the Argentine Episcopal Conference, and notably by its then president, Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. So the pope did commission a counter-inquiry to try to have a priest who had been sentenced for pedophilia acquitted. And it's said that Jose Bergoglio, the future pope, actually sent it to the judges with a shrewd sense of timing before Father Grassi's various appeal hearings. One of the magistrates who received a copy of the counter-inquiry agreed to meet us. Carlos Maikis, a former appeal court judge and former minister of justice, is today a high court judge. It's the first time he's spoken openly about the Grassi case. He remembers very well the day he found this counter-inquiry on his desk. But finally, useless. Father Grassi's sentence was upheld at both the appeals court and high court. At the center of the counter-inquiry commissioned by the pope when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires is the account of a boy, an orphan, the main victim of Grassi. Since the case blew up in the early 2000s, it's the first time he's agreed to talk to a reporter. He wants to remain anonymous because he's still afraid of reprisals. There's a threat, and here it is. It's tangible. There are witnesses, there's this, there's that. They broke my lock, they took things, personal things, videotapes or things like that that I was afraid were things that Grassi would do. What justice decided was that for me to be safe, to face security, that I join the program as a protected witness. What do you think of these books? The only thing I believe in Grassi is that phrase, I never let go of my hand. And I didn't hear if Francisco is still giving him his hand or not, but I didn't hear the opposite of the Church. So I stay with that part that I believe in Grassi, that he never let go of his hand. The Pope has never publicly commented on the Grassi case. For eight months we tried to get an interview with the Holy Father. Dozens of requests, all refused. So at the Vatican we tried to meet His Holiness. He wants to hold a public audience on St. Peter's Square. To get anywhere near him you need to be up very early and to slip into the long line of the faithful. The door is open. Like at a concert, you have to sprint to the front to get the best places. Mission accomplished. We're in the front row. We split up. One part of the crew films from the Vatican Terrace. We want to give Pope Francis a letter with all our questions on his supposed role in the attempt to divert the course of justice in Argentina. Thousands of people have gathered. We'll need a miracle to get to talk to the Pope. A few hours later the Popemobile arrives. The third time it passes we shout. We manage to give him our letter. And then a few minutes later His Holiness in the case of Gracia has attempted to influence the Argentine justice. No? Because he asked for this study in the case of Gracia. Papa Kiko. Not at all. Despite our quick chat, neither Pope Francis nor any Vatican official has ever answered our letter. At the end of this investigation there's one question. How can the Catholic Church retrieve itself from these guilty silences? Clergymen from a number of countries such as Belgium, the United States and the Netherlands are mobilizing and launching national inquiry commissions on sexual abuse within the Church. All victims are listened to and the spotlight has fallen on the responsibility of the bishops. So let us pray. May the Vatican order a worldwide inquiry commission so that past scars may be healed and we may still have faith in the future.