A newly revealed letter from the Vatican dated from 1997 forbids Ireland's Catholic bishops to report suspected child abuse cases to police since this would be in violation of the church's canon laws.
The damning letter was brought to light by Irish broadcasters RTE and provides details of the Vatican's complete rejection of an Irish church initiative to assist police in identifying paedophile priests.
The letter contains information from the Vatican's diplomat in Ireland who quotes instructions from a church panel in Rome, the Congregation for the Clergy, which declared that the new Irish policy of "mandatory" reporting of abuse claims was in conflict with canon law.
The Vatican has yet to officially endorse any of the Irish church's three main documents on child protection since 1996. All of these documents stress mandatory reporting of suspected offenses.
"The letter is of huge international significance," said Colm O'Gorman, director of the Irish section of Amnesty International. "It shows that the Vatican's intention is to prevent reporting of abuse to criminal authorities. And if that instruction applied here [in Ireland], it applied everywhere."