Warsaw, May 17, 2020: Polands Archbishop Wojciech Polak has urged the Vatican to investigate allegations of child sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in the country reported in a documentary released on YouTube.

The “Hide and Seek” documentary broadcast on YouTube on Saturday alleges the abuse of children by Catholic clerics in Poland, reports Efe news.

“As a high representative of the Episcopal Conference, I ask the Holy See to launch proceedings,” Archbishop Polak, said in a statement, according to Polish television channel tvn24.

The documentary film is the second by brothers Marek and Tomasz Sekielski and has already racked up over 1.9 million views.

“The film… shows that protection standards for children and adolescents in the Church were not respected,” Archbishop Polak said in a video aired by the Catholic news agency KAI.

“I ask priests, nuns, parents and educators to not be led by the false logic of shielding the Church, effectively hiding sexual abusers,” he said.

“We do not allow for the hiding of these crimes.”

The Sekielski brothers have already addressed concerns of abuse within the Polish Catholic Church with their first documentary broadcast in May 2019.

In it, the filmmakers highlighted what they called the “systematic sins of paedophilia” of clerics.

The first film of the series titled “Tell No One” has been viewed 23 million times and triggered a political reaction from the country”s ultra-conservative Law party and Justice (PiS), which has close links to the church.

The Polish government said it would double prison terms for paedophiles as a result and made a commitment to creating a commission to investigate the alleged abuse, but this is yet to happen.

In the second documentary of the series, the filmmakers focus on three brothers, all minors and victims of sexual abuse by the same priest.

The documentary alleges a senior Bishop was aware of the abuse but failed to do anything about it.

According to the Sekielski brothers, these are not isolated cases but rather an example of widespread abuse within the Polish Catholic Church.

They were now working on another two films about Saint John Paul II, who was Pope between 1978 and 2005 and venerated in his home country of Poland.

https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/polands-archbishop-urges-vatican-to-probe-child-sex-abuse-case/1837237