Poland Abuse

Poland raised jail terms for convicted paedophiles to a maximum 30 years --  after

a groundbreaking documentary on child sex abuse among Polish priests

sparked public outrage and a crisis in the devoutly Catholic country's church.

Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of changes to the criminal code

that also introduce life sentences for the most dangerous paedophiles and

 remove a statute of limitations on prosecution of the most drastic cases of child sex abuse.

The changes introduced by the right-wing government, which

It is closely allied with Poland's powerful Roman Catholic church,

It come just ten days ahead of a tight race in elections to the European Parliament.

Posted on YouTube on Saturday, the "Tell No One" film by brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski has been viewed nearly 18 million times.
The revelations have rocked Poland's powerful Roman Catholic church to the core.
The two-hour documentary includes hidden camera footage of victims who

The victims are now adults- confronting elderly priests about the abuse

they suffered decades earlier.

Several of the priests admit to the abuse and apologise for it, sometimes
hinting at monetary compensation.

The film also details how
priests accused or even convicted of child sex abuse were transferred to other parishes
and able to continue their duties and work with children. 

Top Polish clerics refused to be interviewed for the documentary.
Polish Primate Wojciech Polak who
He apologised "for every wound inflicted by the Church's people" after watching the film

He vowed to set up a "solidarity fund"
to help provide victims with "concrete help" but
he insisted it was not a compensation fund.

"Where compensation is concerned, we should conform to the law in force in Poland,
so if the court awards it, then the Church is not above the law,"

Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna,
He is a Vatican expert on paedophilia among the priesthood,

He will visit Poland next month,

The Polish church admitted in March that

nearly 400 clergy had sexually abused children and minors over the last three decades,
the abuse reflecting findings published a month earlier by a local charity.

The documentary concludes that
Polish-born pope and saint John Paul II turned a blind eye to sex abuse

when Warsaw's communist regime was working to undermine the church, then Poland's only independent institution. 
Pope Francis last week passed a landmark new measure to oblige those who
 know about sex abuse to report it to superiors, which could bring many new cases to light.