Vatican decries sex abuse documentary

VATICAN CITY, June 1 (UPI) -- Vatican officials called a British documentary on sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests "biased" and "unfair" after it aired on Italian television.

After a decision to air "Sex Crimes and the Vatican" prompted debate for weeks, the documentary was watched Thursday by nearly 4.8 million people, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday.

"The documentary deals with dramatic material from a clearly biased viewpoint," Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said. "It becomes seriously unfair when it makes criticisms of the motivations behind church documents, whose nature and goals are misrepresented, and when it focuses on the figure of Cardinal Ratzinger, today Pope Benedict XVI."

The documentary examined what it said were secret Vatican documents, which it called "blueprint for coverups" of sexual abuse of children by priests. It said rules in one particular document stressing confidentiality of canonical trials were enforced by Benedict before he became pope.

The Vatican denied the procedures were meant to prevent victims from going to the police, saying the document deals with church law only.