Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the head of Poland’s Roman Catholic Church has said he is asking the Vatican to investigate the cover-up of child sexual abuse by priests following the release of a documentary on the subject on Saturday.
The film tells the story of two brothers who try to confront a priest who allegedly abused them when they were children.
The Vatican is expected to assign an investigator to the case.
The film – “Hide and Seek” – is the second documentary on the subject by brothers Marek and Tomasz Sekielski and has been viewed more than 1.9 million times on YouTube.
The film follows two male victims as they try to make those in the Church who were responsible for covering up their abuse accountable.
They claim that a senior bishop knew about the allegations for years but failed to do anything about it or stop it.
“The film… shows that protection standards for children and adolescents in the Church were not respected,” Archbishop Polak said.
“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.”
Archbishop Polak added that he had asked the Vatican to investigate the allegations raised in the film after a letter that was issued by Pope Francis last year.
The letter made it mandatory for Roman Catholic clergy to report cases of clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups.