Author claims to have uncovered first Church sex abuse scandal

A BOOK written by an English academic claims to have uncovered the first child sex abuse scandal to rock the Catholic Church.

Karen Liebreich says she has uncovered evidence of a cover up back in the 1640s where a man accused of abusing boys in his care was actually promoted.

In her book, Fallen Order, Ms Leibreich, says that in 1643, a group of priests was able to take control of a Europe-wide religious order dedicated to teaching impoverished children, after the church hierarchy failed to deal with child abuse scandals amongst its members.

She says it would be incorrect to call this group a paedophile ring, but it is nevertheless true that a man accused of abusing the boys in his care was promoted to universal superior of this order, supported by a group of like-minded priests The initial cover-up had the full complicity of the inquisition and the Pope himself, she claims, despite the fact that sex with children was clearly recognised at the time as a grave sin.

The book also reveals using his own letters how the cover-up was ordered by one of the Catholic Church's most revered saints. In 1621, the Spaniard Fr José de Calasanz established the Piarist Order to house and educate the poor children of Rome. These schools flourished despite war, earthquakes and plague and quickly became established throughout Catholic Europe, eventually educating thousands of children.

Yet in 1646, Calasanz's Order was abruptly abolished by the Pope amid rumours of a great scandal.

The author has used highly restricted archive material to investigate the reasons for the order's closure. Her book reveals for the first time the sexual abuse of children practised by some of the leading priests in the order and how José de Calasanz, later honoured as the patron saint of Catholic schools, knew of the scandal and tried to cover it up. Ms Leibreich claims Pope Innocent X put a man known to be one of the most prolific abusers in charge of an order dedicated to the education of children. Although the order was suppressed when the scandal eventually became public, it was later revived and is still in existence today, its turbulent past ignored.

The author says that sexual abuse of vulnerable children was widespread in the Piarist Order in the 1640s and that the Catholic Hierarchy continuously moved abusers from school to school, placing the needs of the Priesthood above the needs of the victims. She adds that abusers were not only moved along, but 'promoted up' beyond reproach and that the primary culprit at the time, Father Cherubini, was made Universal Superior of the Order with the full knowledge of his superior, Father José de Calasanz.

Father José de Calasanz was Sanctified in 1748 and Beatified in 1767. In 1948 he was made Patron Saint of Catholic Schools.