Archbishop rejects claims Pope led abuse cover-up

ARCHBISHOP of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin yesterday rejected claims that Pope Benedict XVI led a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Catholic priests.

Following shocking allegations in a television programme that the Pontiff helped protect paedophile clerics, the archbishop said investigations had not been hindered.

The documentary claimed the Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, threatened all witnesses to such abuse with excommunication if they reported the crime to state, or other, non-Church bodies.