Pope John Paul II helped ‘cover up’ child abuse in Poland, says book

JOHN Paul II “knew” about cases of child abuse by Catholic priests in Poland and helped cover them up before becoming pope in 1978, a new book claims.

Dutch journalist Ekke Overbeek spent more than a decade combing through archives and interviewing victims and witnesses for “Maxima Culpa”, which has sparked an outcry in the pope’s native Poland.