WikiLeaks exposes Vatican cover-up

The American media has been endlessly debating the merits of WikiLeaks over the past few weeks, but 

the U.S. government isn't the only one whose secrets are being leaked. Wikileaks has just released new documents that shed greater light on the Vatican's sordid role in the recent Irish priest sex scandal:

Pope Benedict refused to allow Vatican officials to testify in an investigation by an Irish commission into alleged child sex abuse by priests, according to U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, The Guardian newspaper reported.

Benedict was also reportedly furious when Vatican officials were called upon in Rome, The Guardian reported Saturday.

According to the documents, Benedict even went as far as to say the Murphy Commission of Inquiry into sexual and physical abuse "offended many in the Vatican."

"The Vatican believes the Irish government failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the investigations," it said.

So after all the protests by Catholic officials and parishioners that the Pope knew nothing about these atrocities and that the Church conspired to cover them up, here's further evidence of their complicity. So eager was the Pope to protect the Vatican thta he even denied investigators access to Vatican officials, interfering with the Irish abuse investigation and putting even more children in danger. There is simply no way an intellectually honest person could conclude from the facts that the Pope values the safety of Catholic children more than protecting the reputation of the Catholic Church.

And the most disturbing part of this whole story is that Irish officials let the Pope get away sabotaging the investigation. The leaked documents reveal the Vatican was granted immunity by Irish investigators because of the belief that opposition politicians were publicly putting pressure on their government to vilify the Vatican just to further their own careers.

The Irish government, meanwhile, wanted "to be seen as co-operating with the investigation" because its churches and education department were also involved in the scandal.

So the Irish government eventually just gave in. And so rapists and their accomplices just get away with their crimes and more and we have every reason to believe more and more child rapes will continue to take place among Catholic priests who will never see the inside of a jail cell.

Oh, and then there's the whole Vatican money laundering scandal.

There will never be a better business model for an organized crime syndocate than the Catholic Church. Al Capone has nothing on Ratzinger.

examiner.com