The Vatican has quietly issued new rules for Catholic churches worldwide to deal with paedophile priests, saying they should stand trial in secret ecclesiastical courts.
Pope John Paul II and the Vatican issued two documents on the problem in 2001, but they were not presented at press conferences or made public as is usually the case for such documents.
Instead, they were published in Latin without any fanfare in the latest yearly volume of Acta Apostolicae Sedis, (Acts of the Apostolic See), the journal of record of the Holy See.
In recent years, the Catholic Church has been rocked by scandals involving paedophile priests, and the Vatican has been grappling with how to control the damage.
In his document, known in Latin as a Motu Proprioand one of the highest forms of papal directives, the Pope authorised the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to issue guidelines on how to deal with the problem.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation, which deals with matters of faith and morals, sent a letter to all Roman Catholic bishops and heads of religious orders outlining the Vatican's concerns.
The letter said that if a local bishop or head of a religious order became aware of even a hint of a case of paedophilia he must open an investigation and inform the (Rome) Congregation.
A local church tribunal, made up of priests, should hear the case, which could be referred to the Vatican, but the procedures would be covered by church secrecy.
The letter made no mention of whether a bishop should inform civil authorities if a Church court found a priest guilty.
A cover sheet was attached asking the recipients not to divulge the information contained in the letter, Church sources said. The cover sheet was not published in the official record.
The Director of the Child Protection Office of the Irish Bishop's Conference, Mr Paul Bailey, confirmed to ireland.comthis evening that the 26 diocesan bishops in Ireland had received the letter from the Papal See.
He said he was not in a position to comment as he had not seen the letter himself but a statement from the Church would be forthcoming.
Additional reporting by: