Pope John Paul 2 was aware of homosexual priests but hid the report

Former Pope John Paul 2 hid child abuse during his time as pope, a new report has shown, according to national newspapers.

According to a report aired on TVN television on Sunday evening, Pope John Paul II knew about the abuse of children in the Catholic church in his home in Poland, but he hid the events all along.

Michal Gutowski, the investigator behind the revelations, said that Karol Wojtyla, as he was called before becoming Pope at the time, knew about cases of priests sexually abusing children in the church when he was still a cardinal in Krakow.

He transferred the priests to another diocese -- one as far away as Austria -- to ensure no scandal occurred, AFP said.

Wojtyla, who was pope for 27 years from 1978 until his death in 2005, wrote a letter of recommendation to a priest accused of abuse to Vienna cardinal Franz Koenig, without mentioning the accusations, Gutowski said in the report.

During his investigation, the TV detective said he spoke with victims of child sex priests, their families and former employees of the church diocese.

The investigator, according to the report, said that the church denied him permission to examine the documents of the late John Paul.

The Polish church has previously refused to release documents to a court or public commission of inquiry investigating cases of child abuse in the church.

Several victims who spoke in the article and whose names or faces were not revealed admitted to give information about priests who were sexually abusing boys to Pope John Paul but he never considered or took any disciplinary and legal measures.