1963 letter 'shows Pope knew of abuse'

The head of a US Roman Catholic order that specialised in the treatment of paedophile priests visited Pope Paul VI nearly 50 years ago and followed up with a letter recommending their removal from ministry, it has emerged.

In the August 27, 1963 letter, the head of the New Mexico-based Servants of the Holy Paraclete tells the Pope he recommends removing paedophile priests from active ministry and strongly urges defrocking repeat offenders.

The letter shows that the Vatican knew, or should have known, about clergy abuse in the US decades ago, said Anthony DeMarco, a plaintiff lawyer in Los Angeles who provided the letter.

The release comes as abuse victims in Kentucky are attempting to sue the Vatican for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about priests who molested children.

The church has come under fire for transferring priests accused of sexual abuse to other parishes, rather than reporting the abuse to civil authorities and removing them from ministry.

But the problem was very well known to Rome long before the 1960s.

The 1917 code of canon law criminalised sexual abuse of minors and five years later the Vatican penned a document outlining detailed procedures for handling such cases.

In 1962 that document was updated and has been used in many of the lawsuits by victims against US dioceses and the Vatican itself.

The letter, written by the Rev Gerald Fitzgerald, appears to have been drafted at the request of the Pope and summarises Mr Fitzgerald's thoughts on problem priests after his Vatican visit.

A message left with the Paraclete order at one of their two existing centres in Missouri was not returned and the offices of the Vatican spokesman were closed last night.

But Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, defended the church and said it was unlikely Paul VI ever saw the letter.

"The fact of the matter is, the prevailing ideas at the time about how to deal with abusive behaviour were not adequate," Mr Tamberg said.

"Clearly, society and the church have evolved new understandings of what causes sexually abusive behaviour and how to deal with it."

Mr Fitzgerald opens the five-page letter by thanking the Pope for an audience the day before and says he is summarising his thoughts at the Pope's request on the "problem of the problem priest" after 20 years working to treat them.

He tells Paul that treatment for priests who have succumbed to "abnormal, homosexual tendencies" should include psychiatric as well as spiritual counselling - but goes on to warn about the dangers of leaving those individuals in ministry.

The letter also touches on priests who have consensual affairs with women.

"Personally, I am not sanguine of the return of priests to active duty who have been addicted to abnormal practices, especially sins with the young," Mr Fitzgerald wrote.

"Where there is indication of incorrigibility, because of the tremendous scandal given, I would most earnestly recommend total laicisation. I say 'total' ... because when these men are taken before civil authority, the non-Catholic world definitely blames the discipline of celibacy for the perversion of these men."

Mr Fitzgerald's letter showed the Pope knew how pervasive and destructive the problem was, Mr DeMarco said.

"He says the solution is to take them out of the priesthood period, not shuffle them around, not pass them from diocese to diocese," he said.

The letter was released in Los Angeles by lawyers who represented more than 500 victims of clergy abuse in their record-breaking £440 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2007.

Lawyers working on the Los Angeles cases found it among court papers related to clergy abuse cases filed in New Mexico in the late 1980s and early 1990s and fought to get it unsealed.

The letter released yesterday is different from a 1957 letter made public last year in which Mr Fitzgerald seeks help from the Bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire, in finding a placement for a priest leaving the treatment programme.

A prominent Austrian cardinal yesterday acknowledged church guilt in a sex abuse scandal involving Catholic clergy.

During a sombre service in Vienna's famous St Stephen's Cathedral, Christoph Schoenborn, a close confidante of Pope Benedict XVI, also thanked victims for breaking their silence.

Amid much media attention and an audience of about 3,000 people, Cardinal Schoenborn said some in the church took advantage and destroyed the trust of children, were sexually violent and considered the image of the church most important.

The strong language was contained in a confession he read together with Veronika Prueller-Jagenteufel, a theologian.

"We, God's people, his church, together carry this guilt," they said in unison after taking turns reading separate sections.

Cardinal Schoenborn, who serves as archbishop of Vienna, also openly addressed attempts to cover up abuse, saying silence "occurred far too often" in the past.

"A lot has been pried open," Cardinal Schoenborn said. "There is less looking away. But there is still a lot to do."