WARSAW (Reuters) – The Polish Catholic Church’s most senior archbishop notified the Vatican on Saturday of a Polish bishop accused of shielding priests known to have sexually abused children.
FILE PHOTO: Archbishop Wojciech Polak speaks with media representatives after extraordinary sitting of Polish bishops, to discuss steps the Catholic Church in Poland should take to tackle the problem of paedophilia, at the Polish Episcopate headquarters in Warsaw, Poland May 22, 2019. Agencja Gazeta/Slawomir Kaminski/via REUTERS/File Photo
The referral, unprecedented in the deeply religious country, will test procedures introduced by the Vatican last year to hold to account bishops accused of turning a blind eye to child sex abuse. The Vatican is now expected to assign an investigator to the case.
“I ask priests, nuns, parents and educators to not be led by the false logic of shielding the Church, effectively hiding sexual abusers,” Poland’s P