Original subtitles

(anticipatory music)

- [Narrator] It's a multinational of a particular kind,

one you all know, some of you may even visit it.

It's present across the globe.

And on the corner of your street.

The Catholic Church.

With its hierarchy,

its communication

and its very darkest secret

pedophilia.

In Australia, 7% of priests are thought to have

sexually abused minors, 4% in the United States.

We discovered that clergymen, found guilty of pedophilia,

are still active, often in contact with children.

Thanks to internal documents, we'll reveal how

Church leaders protect priests accused

of sexually abusing minors

by sending them from country to country, notably in Africa.

Our investigation into these international exiles

took us to Cameroon

to Argentina

to the United States, to France

and to Italy.

During our travels, we established this unprecedented map

that regarding the transfers of priests involved in

cases of pedophilia.

- [Narrator] And the victims number tens of thousands,

marked with scars for the rest of their lives.

Our investigations would lead us all the way to

Pope Francis.

We'll reveal how, when he was Archbishop of Buenos-Aires,

he tried to influence the Argentine Justice Department.

We investigated the mysteries of the Church where,

on the altar of truth, God's law seems to prevail

over that of men.

Our inquiry into the international transfers of priests

accused of pedophilia begins in the United States.

We're in Chicago, in the shadow of this cathedral,

to witness a very unique kind of protest.

- [Group] Expose the truth, protect the children.

Expose the truth, protect the children.

- [Narrator] All are victims of pedophile priests.

In their hands, portraits of them as children

when they were abused.

In the US, 16,000 people have already lodged complaints

for sexual abuse against Catholic priests.

These victims have joined forces for the annual conference

of their support group,

SNAP: Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests.

- Hello everybody, great to see you again.

And I think, it looks like we've got a bigger group than

last year, which is even better news.

So, how many of you are here for the first time?

(cheering)

It looks like 40%.

Remember, that all of us here are survivors of sexual

assaults and betrayals during our youth.

So if you are looking for an opportunity to share your

experience with people who truly get it, this is the place.

- [Narrator] Recently, the organization has seen abuse

victims from all over the world join its ranks.

It has become the Internationale of those abused

by the Church.

- Where are you from? Chile. - Santiago, Chile.

- I'm from Germany, from Berlin.

- I was sexually abused in Mexico when I was 14 years old.

- I'm actually from the Philippines.

I was abused by just one for three, three years!

I was 15 years old.

- I was abused as a teen for a long period of time.

It was with an oblique priest, is name was Jack McCan,

in Vancouver, Canada.

- [Narrator] Accounts from over 50 countries.

At the end of the conference, we talk to one of

the activists, Anne Barett Doyle.

Thanks to reports from victims, SNAP is the only group

to have been able to establish a list of priests worldwide

allegedly involved in pedophilia cases.

- We only include those priests who have been accused of

child sexual abuses in a credible public document.

It was to be either a court document that's publicly

accessible, or a mainstream news outlet.

- [Narrator] She began her work 14 years ago.

In the States, these activists publish the names and photos

of accused priests on the Internet, to try to ensure they

never come into contact with children again.

- This is just the letter A, and it just keeps going.

- How many names at the end, so far?

- So, all in the entire database we have 4,400 names.

- Do you have any French names in the list?

- We do have several.

So Father Rivoire is a troubling case because he abused

this young boy and Marius, an Inuit boy, did report

the abuse eventually within statute, but Rivoire

was fled.

In 1993 it somehow spirited him back to France were

he lives safely now.

That's not the case of his victim who took his

own life in December of 2012.

- [Narrator] To avoid justice, one French priest accused

of the sexual abuse of minors is thought to have

fled Canada and be in hiding in France.

The story barely seems credible.

We contacted the sister of one of

the priest's presumed victims.

Theresie Tungalik speaks to us from northern Canada,

deep in Inuit territory.

Her brother Marius Tungalik committed suicide

five years ago.

He had filed a complaint against the French priest.

She has sent us some old photos of her and

her kid brother and one of Father Rivoire.

- [Man] How old would be Marius today?

- He would be 58 today.

- [Man] Do you think the what happened to him

when he was a child was responsible of that,

why he decided to die?

- Of course, of course.

Marius never left him, even when he became an outlaw.

He could not sleep in the dark, he was still afraid.

- [Man] Do you think Marius was the only victim

of mister Rivoire?

- No, I know someone, people.

He has ruined so many people's lives.

This man doesn't deserve to be free.

If we can get Rivoire

behind bars on Canadian soil, it will be a message to

the other priests who take them and get away

with things like this.

- [Narrator] We get our hands on the warrant issued to

the Canadian police for Father Rivoire's arrest.

They have been after the priest since 1998.

On it, we discover the name of Marius,

but also two other boys, made anonymous by

the police with black lines.

A girl of 14 is also among the alleged victims.

In all, the priest is thought to have abused four children

Finally, in the top left-hand corner, a vital piece

of information, the name of the town where the priest

is believed to be hiding, Goult in France, a small town

in the Vaucluse where there's a monastery belonging

to his community.

So we catch the train to Strasbourg.

That's right, because in the meantime, we've got hold

of some internal documents from his community,

Father Rivoire has been transferred several times.

After Arviat in Canada, he didn't stay in Goult,

as presumed by the Canadian police.

He apparently went next to Thurins near Lyon.

And that's where we lost track of him.

But after several months of inquiries, during a phone call,

a priest from a priory where Father Rivoire had stayed,

unwittingly gives us a new lead.

- [Narrator] The priest, wanted by the Canadian police

for 19 years for sexually abusing four children,

seemingly lives here, in Strasbourg,

among his religious community.

From now on, we'll film with a hidden camera.

- [Narrator] Our information was correct.

- [Narrator] The priest is here at the end of the corridor.

- [Narrator] We show him the photo of the young Inuit,

Marius Tungalik.

- [Narrator] How can a priest accused of the sexual abuse

of minors change countries and homes and stay out of

the clutches of the police and justice for almost

20 years, and is it an isolated case?

One man may have an explanation.

Back in the United States, we've arranged to meet

a former American priest.

Patrick Wall, since the 1990s, he has been a close-up

witness of pedophile scandal.

- Joining the monastery as a very idealistic 20-year-old,

and though I was going to be a monk, a priest,

and unfortunately, it didn't work out that way because

so many sex abuses came forward, that I ended up actually

being ordained early to go work on and follow sex abusers

who were being withdrawn.

And at that point, at the age of 32, I had to make

a moral decision,

Am I going to support this institution?

Am I part of this? Or do I have to find a different path?

And that's why I chose to take a different path,

to help survivors.

- [Narrator] Since then, Patrick Wall has become

a whistle-blower, an expert called on to testify

in over 2,000 cases of priests accused of sexual abuse.

According to him, the Catholic Church has developed

a system to exfiltrate pedophile priests.

That's the same pattern we've seen in Australia,

it's the same pattern we've seen in the United States,

it's the same pattern we've seen in Canada,

it's the same pattern in Ireland, in England, in Italy.

It's honestly, it's the DNA of the Roman Catholic system.

And I like to call this the geographic solution.

So, what's the bishop means to do then he finds out that

the priest is a perpetrator.

And then at that point, he simply moves him to

a different spot, where the previous scandal is not known.

- [Man] And if it's not enough?

- He moves him outside the country!

That's that's a geographic solution.

You can move him from continent to continent as long

as he can speak the language that is needed.

It looks legitimate, and so he's gonna be accepted

without question.

That's why the danger comes in.

- [Narrator] An anonymous source would provide us with proof

of the geographical solution described by Patrick Wall.

One evening, we receive dozens of internal documents

from the Community of Saint John.

500 brothers present throughout the world.

This French community is highly controversial,

it has the highest number of priests found guilty

of pedophilia in recent years, three since 2012.

And there are thought to have been more cases

of sexual abuse, it's all there in back and white!

As we turn the pages, we get a strange feeling,

the community seems to have become a master in

the art of the international displacement of priests

suspected of sexually abusing children.

Among the pile of documents from

the Community of Saint John, one recent letter

draws our attention,

and sends us rushing to the airport.

Here's the letter: signed by a high-ranking Church official

this archbishop from Cameroon.

He wrote to the head of the Community of Saint John,

having decided to exclude it from diocese,

several Saint John priests.

He explained himself.

Reverend Brother,

some brothers of Saint John got themselves

into situations of extreme gravity.

The brothers in question were about to be hauled in front of

the courts at a risk of dirtying the image of our Church.

I've used all my weight to make sure this did not happen.

What had these French priests done to incur the wrath

of an archbishop?

In Cameroon, a mostly Catholic country,

the Community of Saint John is an institution.

The brothers run one of the biggest high schools in

Yaounde, the capital.

But in Bertoua in the east of the country,

the Brothers of Saint John have left town.

Until 2014, they oversaw this cathedral,

the biggest in the region.

We go to see the archbishop, the one who asked

the Saint John priests to leave.

Monsignor Atanga, one of the African representatives

of the Vatican.

- [Narrator] We tried to dig deeper, but...

- [Narrator] Yes, thank you for your precious comments,

Your Grace, but they weren't exactly helpful!

At the cathedral of Bertoua we'll discover the reasons

why the Saint John brothers hurriedly left own:

another alleged case of pedophilia.

The sexual abuse of a number of boys.

For three days, we try to find these presumed victims.

In this city, where the Catholic Church is omnipresent,

it's hard to broach the subject.

Finally, we find one of the kids who was supposedly abused

by the priest, today, he's 15.

- [Narrator] We show him one of the Community's

internal documents that we managed to procure:

the mug shots of all the Saint John brothers

across the globe, 508 in all.

- [Narrator] This priest had indeed been posted in Bertoua.

- [Narrator] After a few weeks, the boy finally

admitted everything to his parents.

They immediately went together to the Bertoua law courts

to file a complaint.

But here, nobody touches the Church.

- [Narrator] In Bertoua, the justice of men

seems to serve men of God.

We have an appointment with a civil servant

inside the Ministry of Justice.

We film discreetly.

She confirms the closeness between the Church

and one of the top judges.

- [Narrator] The civil servant gives us an excerpt

from the victim's testimony.

The name of Father Emmanuel appears nowhere.

Instead, he's merely designated as

(speaking foreign language), the priest.

- [Narrator] Before leaving Bertoua,

we meet another presumed victim.

He too picks out Father Emmanuel from the mug shots.

- [Narrator] Where is Father Emmanuel now,

the French priest accused of sexually abusing

at least two boys?

Among the Community's internal documents

are the postings made in 2016.

Since being expelled from Bertoua in Cameroon,

Father Emmanuel appears to be in Bologna in Italy.

- [Narrator] We wait for the Father outside the priory.

After a few hours...

- [Narrator] He finally shows up!

We film discreetly.

- [Narrator] Very subtle indeed, children are manipulated

by the archbishop, but Father Emmanuel offers

another explanation.

- [Narrator] According to Father Emmanuel, nothing happened.

But why then was he shipped out of Cameroon

when he could have been posted to another diocese

in the country?

In Bologna, his new superior explains.

He doesn't know we're filming.

- [Narrator] So the Community of Saint John shipped

Father Emmanuel off to Bologna so he wouldn't

be anywhere near any kids!

But when we leave the priory, two posters catch our eye,

(speaking foreign language) and (speaking foreign language).

A theater inside the priory!

- [Narrator] It's then that the penny drops.

- [Narrator] After all this to-ing and fro-ing

in the world of Saint John,

we had a few questions for the head of the community.

On the case in Bertoua in Cameroon,

but also on the other documents in our hands.

The Saint John public relations director emailed us,

Dear sir.

We are prudent about the televised press,

especially when sensitive subjects are concerned.

After long reflection, we prefer to decline your

request for an interview.

Regarding the departure of the brothers from

the cathedral in Bertoua, we had every reason to believe

that these rumors were ungrounded, the same conclusion

that the local police and justice obviously reached,

because they pressed no charges after their investigation.

I send you cordial greetings and my prayers.

Not exactly a satisfactory reply!

So we check up on the schedule of the head of

the Community of Saint John.

He's due to fly to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia

today from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris.

We wait for Brother Thomas Joachim with a sign

to grab his attention,

and it works!

- [Narrator] Despite our frequent requests,

the Community of Saint John refused to grant

us an interview.

During our investigation, we discovered other examples

of the international transfer of priests

accused of pedophilia.

We could have chosen to tell you about this priest,

from Lyon, who, after being accused of sexual abuse

by one young teenager, was moved to Guinea.

Or this one, with an international arrest warrant

for sexually abusing children in France

hanging over his head, now in refuge in Lebanon.

Or this one, an Italian, wanted for sexually abusing

eight boys, transferred to Mozambique.

At the heart of the Catholic Church, how many cases

are there of priests moved from country to country

due to suspicion of sexual abuse on minors?

We tried to add them up.

Over three months, we contacted the main victims'

groups around the world.

Each gave us their list of transferred priests.

Then we called whistle-blowers, attorneys,

judges.

And all cross-checked with local newspaper articles.

We only took into account priests moved since 1990.

There were so many cases, we had to see this

on the big screen!

So we booked the biggest panoramic movie theater in Paris!

We compiled all of the data onto a map.

To discover it with us, is Father Joulain.

- [Narrator] A French clergyman with a unique profile:

he's both a priest and a therapist.

He sees sexual abuse victims.

But also the priests accused of it.

That's right, and he's the only French man of the cloth

to accept our invitation.

(beeping)

- [Narrator] As you can imagine after this interview,

our attention turned to the Vatican, the Holy See,

the place where the Church's laws are made.

The place where punishments against pedophile priests

are meted out.

But we discovered that even inside the Vatican government,

high-ranking officials have been accused

of covering for priests accused of pedophilia.

After several months of discussion, the Vatican chose

this priest to answer our questions.

Father Zollner, an adviser to the Pope on sexual abuse

issues.

He also sits on the Commission for the Protection of Minors,

a body founded by Pope Francis two years ago.

- You have been appointed to this commission.

What has the commission done since then,

and do you think it's enough?

- We have people from all continents on this commission,

we have experts from different fields so psychology,

psychiatry, law, international law, social work

and theology and we try to discuss what can be next

steps to help the Pope to set up new measures

to be more incisive in the life of local churches.

- Okay, and there is still lot to do, no?

- My expression for this is: this is a generational task.

We will not finish within two years or five years,

we will have to work long term,

between 15, 20 maybe 30 years.

- I wanted to show you something:

these are the 10 cardinals that are usually considered

as the most powerful of the Vatican.

This is the C9, right?

- It's an advisory board.

- Okay and here, Gerhard Muller,

prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine

on the Faith.

Among these 10 cardinals, four are accused of

having covered up pedophile priests.

You know that of course?

- Sure! - What do you think of it?

- I have no particular knowledge about any of them,

I, I, I don't know.

- You just said to me you knew it.

- I know that there are allegations but I don't know what,

what is the background of these cases.

I am not an investigator.

- You want me to be more precise?

- Sure.

- Okay, George Pell, so he's here, in Australia,

few months ago in front of the Australian Royal Commission

on Sexual Abuses, within the church, we recognized knowing

sexual abuses from Australian priests but did not denounce

them to justice.

So, what do you think of him being in the C9

with that story?

- I have been to Australia last year, I have traveled,

I have been in the diocese and I met with three survivors

from the school where Cardinal Pell was at that time

the vice-director of the school.

And Cardinal Pell will engage to cooperate with justice

and to cooperate in the sense of setting up

safeguarding measures.

- Sure, but when he says he will, this is future.

But he didn't denounce sexual abuses before

and he is on the C9.

- He'd admitted that.

- Is it shocking for you or not?

- Of course it is shocking yes.

- For him to be in the C9

and not having denouncing sexual abuses on minors?

- Yeah, sure.

- Sure. Francisco Errazuriz, in Chile, here.

Documents have showed that Errazuriz

has waited five years after the first victim spoke out

to take action

and to remove the priest, Father Caradima,

and the fire Father Caradima has been since proven guilty

by the Vatican of sexual abuses.

He's here, still in the C9.

- Yeah, I'm not responsible for the appointments in the C9.

- No, but what do you think of it?

- I'm not the one who decides on that.

- [Woman] But, what do you think?

- I think that they will stay as long

as the Pope wants them there.

- Thank you very much. - Thank you.

- [Narrator] It seems then that only the Pope has the power

to punish his cardinals.

So why doesn't he take stronger action?

Maybe because he too faced accusations

in his homeland of Argentina, long before his election.

- [Narrator] When he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires,

he apparently tried to have a pedophile priest acquitted.

To understand, we took one last flight.

In our baggage, this book of interviews with the Pope.

On page 54, the Pope tackles the question

of pedophile priests.

He writes, it never happened in my diocese.

On the Holy Father's word! But is it the truth?

In Buenos Aires, along with God,

or rather Diego Maradona, the Pope is a star.

His face is everywhere.

And yet, some refuse to share in this iconographic cult.

In the city center, we have arranged to meet

a group of victims.

They were abused by priests in

the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.

They alerted Pope Francis when he was their Archbishop.

- [Narrator] As Archbishop of Buenos Aires,

Pope Francis was seemingly deaf to the distress

of these victims.

But apparently it's worse,

in another case concerning other victims,

some believe he willfully tried to divert

the course of justice.

It's the Father Grassi case.

The biggest pedophilia scandal in the Argentinean Church.

Julio Cesar Grassi was one of the best-known priests

in the country.

Very influential and often in the media spotlight.

(speaking foreign language)

He ran a huge orphanage.

Until some of the children there lodged a complaint

against him for sexual abuse.

In 2009, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Still today, he's behind bars.

But the Argentinean Church did all in its power

to have him acquitted.

Juan Pablo Gallego represented Father Grassi's child

victims.

A trial spread over 15 years and opposite him,

the most renowned attorneys in the land!

But also the Catholic Church.

- [Narrator] Don't be fooled by the cover which

makes you think it's a book,

this 2800-page counter-inquiry is a confidential,

internal, Argentinean Church legal text!

Inside, the children are accused of falsifications,

lies, deceit and invention.

Even their own sexual orientation is questioned.

The conclusion is clear: the court's decision was wrong,

Father Grassi had to be acquitted on appeal

One paragraph caught our eye.

This work was commissioned in 2010

by The Argentine Episcopal Conference

particularly by its then president, Cardinal Bergoglio,

now Pope Francis.

So the Pope did then commission a counter-inquiry to

try to have a priest to have been sentenced

for pedophilia acquitted.

And it's said that Jose Bergoglio, the future Pope,

actually sent it to the judges.

With a shrewd sense of timing,

before Father Grassi's various appeal hearings.

One of the magistrates who received a copy of

the counter-inquiry agreed to meet us.

Carlos Mahiques, a former Appeal Court Judge

and former Minister of Justice, is today a High Court Judge.

It's the first time he's spoken

openly about the Grassi case.

He remembers very well the day he found

this counter-inquiry on his desk.

- [Narrator] But finally useless.

Father Grassi's sentence was upheld at both

the Appeal's Court and High Court.

At the center of the counter-inquiry

commissioned by the Pope when he was

Archbishop of Buenos Aires,

is the account of a boy, an orphan,

the main victim of Grassi.

Since the case blew up in the early 2000s,

it's the first time he has agreed to talk to a reporter.

He wants to remain anonymous,

because he's still afraid of reprisals.

- [Narrator] The Pope has never publicly

commented on the Grassi case.

For eight months, we tried to get an interview

with the Holy Father.

Dozens of requests, all refused.

So at the Vatican, we tried to meet His Holiness.

He was to hold a public audience on Saint Peter's Square.

To get anywhere near him, you need to be up very early

and to slip into the long line of the faithful.

The doors open.

Like at a concert, you have to sprint to the front

to get the best places

Mission accomplished, we're in the front row.

We split up, one part of the crew films from

the Vatican terrace.

We want to give Pope Francis a letter with all

our questions on his supposed role in

the attempt to divert the course of justice in Argentina.

Thousands of people have gathered.

We'll need a miracle to get to talk to the Pope.

A few hours later, the popemobile arrives.

The third time it passes, we shout.

We manage to give him our letter.

And then, a few minutes later.

- [Narrator] Despite our quick chat, neither Pope Francis

nor any Vatican official has ever answered our letter.

(speaking foreign language)

At the end of this investigation, there's one question.

How can the Catholic Church retrieve itself

from these guilty silences?

Clergymen from a number of countries, such as Belgium,

the United States and the Netherlands are mobilizing

and launching national inquiry commissions

on sexual abuse within the Church.

All victims are listened to,

and the spotlight has fallen on the responsibility

of the bishops.

So, let us pray, may the Vatican order

a worldwide inquiry commission

so that that past scars may be healed

and we may still have faith in the future.

(calm foreboding music)