Vatican blocks access to site documenting clergy sex abuse

With the papal conclave expected to convene early next week, the Vatican has torn a page out of the Chinese playbook for stifling dissent, blocking access to a prominent website, bishopaccountability.org, that documents cases of clergy abuse.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, access to the site, which has become an invaluable resource for journalists covering the sex abuse scandal, is restricted on the Vatican’s Internet servers. And when one tries to access the site through the Holy See’s network, a message notes that it is blocked because of "hate/racism." That’s certainly one way to describe an effort that has posted more than 8,500 pages of documents describing clergy abuse.

As we’ve written earlier, much of the pre-conclave jockeying plays out in the media, where candidates can be floated and reputations attacked in order to best position one cardinal or another for the papacy. By blocking access to one of the chief sources of information about this dark chapter in the church’s history, the Holy See may be seeking to reassert a degree of control over the mud-slinging process in the media.

The NCR says it has filed a request to have the site unblocked. (Hey, it could happen!) We’ll keep you updated.