children for another two decades. cardinal brady said he will only resign if the pope tells him. officials here at the vatican responded saying in the coming days, the hope will send a letter to the irish people. cnn, vatican city. growing scandal and not a sound from the pope so far. what is going to happen next? the vatican correspondent and the author of the book the upcoming, the future church. john allen joins us now. how integral was this pope to hushing this up? this case in germany? what church officials said while then cardinal rat zinger and now pope benedict was aware that this priest was sent into the archdiocese needing therapy in 1980, he was not aware of a
in 1980 when the pope was still a bishop in germany, he oversaw the case of a priest involved in child abuse. the pope moved the priest from one diocese to another, his own, so that the priest could get therapy. several years later the priest was convicted of child abuse. the pope s critics say he should have paid more attention at the time and taken child abuse more seriously. in germany over the past few months several hundred allegations of abuse have been made, new cases are surfacing in holland, spain, switzerland and brazil, but nowhere is the pressure on the pope and the church greater than in ireland. pressure is growing on the leader of the irish church, cardinal sean brady to step down, following revelations he knew of abuse in the 1970s. he kept it from police, and had the victim sign an oath of secrecy. the priest involved father