hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: president putin and his french counterpart, emmanuel macron, agree to "intensify" diplomatic efforts over ukraine, while the president of ukraine calls for an immediate ceasefire between government forces and pro—russian separatists in the east. the queen has tested positive for covid—19. buckingham palace says she is experiencing mild cold—like symptoms, but does expect to continue light duties. the legal requirement to self—isolate after catching covid in england is expected to be dropped from next week — despite concern from some scientists and medical groups. i'm not saying you can totally throw

caution to the wind — covid remains dangerous if you're vulnerable and if you're not vaccinated. but we need people to be much more confident and get back to work. and after 16 days of competition, the winter olympics come to a spectacular end in beijing, with china handing over to the hosts of the 2026 games, italy. now on bbc news, mark lowen investigates how italy is failing to tackle the scourge of clerical sex abuse. this film contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting. in the shadow of the vatican are the dark secrets that italy itself has buried...

..clerical sex abuse of minors believed to be extensive but undocumented. there is a lot of resistance in the system of society in italy to talk about it, even to talk about it. italy has the world's highest number of priests and the seat of the catholic church in its backyard, but it's not faced up to its sins, hidden away by a veil of secrecy. bells toll. for many italians, the church is as central to their culture as the family. more than 80% here identify

as catholic, children embraced by it from baptism. and it can seem an unchallengeable authority. judging by other countries that have confronted abuse, it's thought there could have been hundreds of thousands of such crimes committed here. we've set out to discover how they've been concealed. well, the culture of silence around clerical sex abuse in italy means that it's very hard to find victims or survivors, as they call themselves, willing to speak, but we've tracked down one not far from rome who says he was abused for 16 years by a priest, starting at the age of eight. he's never spoken to the media before, but now he's willing to talk, and we're off to meet him.

the man we'll call mario requested we hide his identity and not ask him directly about the details of his abuse. it revolves around this priest, gianni bekiaris. the case documents allege in graphic detail how he raped mario for years, using his power to prey on the young child, destroying him physically and emotionally. mario was terrified into silence and submission, his parents unaware of what was going on, naively proud that an important man of the cloth would value their son.

the trauma led him to drugs, psychological collapse, and repeated suicide attempts.

it took years to open up to a therapist, which helped him settle down with a wife and son. mario sniffs. mario tried to seekjustice, approaching bekiaris�* superior, bishop ambrogio spreafico. he began a first court process, led by the vatican's congregation for the doctrine

of the faith under religious or canon law — the way the catholic church deals with problems internally. mario saw it as a whitewash, a system swinging into place to protect the abuser. we've got hold of the judgment from the canon law trial convened by bishop spreafico, which recognised bekiaris�* guilt, adding that, while the priest disputed some details, he confessed the abuse took place. he even paid mario 112,000 euros as a sort of damages. but the panel did not dismiss him, as mario requested. instead, they banned him from working with minors for life. feeling betrayed by every part of the church institution, mario and his lawyer tried an alternative legal route — this time, through italian

criminaljustice. the documents that we've obtained from this trial show judges concluded there was no doubt about the veracity of the accusations, but ruled a trial couldn't proceed because, under italy's cumbersome legal system, the crimes had expired under a time limit, or statute of limitations, which has allowed countless other sex abuse cases to go unpunished. italian law is currently being reformed so the statute of limitations can no longer be used to string out or obstruct a trial. but the reform doesn't apply retrospectively. mario's lawyer says the deeper problem is with italy's constitution and the 1929 lateran pact.

signed by mussolini, the treaty gave the vatican legal autonomy from italy. with it, the clergy has recourse to vatican law over that of italy — in effect, shielding them from italian justice. pope francis has brought in some reforms to tackle the issue — abolishing, for example, a rule called pontifical secrecy that was used to hush up sex abuse... ..and announcing this recent initiative for those who suffered. many, though, say it's too little, too late.

i've come to rome's pontifical university, where a specific course on the topic brings together theology students from around the world. well, these kinds of initiatives are a direct attempt by the catholic church to address the scandal of clerical sex abuse that has torn through it over the last few years — a diploma teaching students about safeguarding abuse victims. but the really interesting thing here is that, among the student body, there are 17 nationalities represented, but no italians, and that, in itself, speaks volumes. and that tallies with the fact that, in italy, there are no official figures on sex abuse — something that troubles the man leading the university course, father hans zollner, who's also on the vatican's commission for the protection of minors. from all the reports we have — from france, from germany, from the uk, from the united states, from australia — you can see

that it was about 4—5% of priests who were either convicted of abuse or were accused of it through alleged perpetrators. so, this is true for all these countries. so, in all probability, there would be a similar number for italy to be expected. in france, a damning report last year found at least 216,000 children had been abused since 1950 by around 3,000 clergymen. italy has more than twice as many priests as france, so there's likely to have been hundreds of thousands of cases here. but despite the un calling for an independent commission in italy three years ago, there's been no such reckoning. there is a lot of resistance in the system of society in italy to talk about it, even to talk about it. in great britain, in australia, in the us, in germany,

society came to a point to confront this issue, and then the church had also to confront it. we've heard of another survivor willing to tell his story, and we're heading to meet him. cezary babicz, originally from poland, was lured to italy by his polish priest, who also moved here, and then abused him sexually and psychologically.

as an adult, cezary went to confront his abuser, secretly filming the meeting and the priest's admission. he too was granted a canon law trial. once again, there was no decision to expel the priest and, once again, italianjudges ruled the crime had expired. since then, the abuser has disappeared.

there's just one association in italy, based in the north, which supports victims of clerical abuse, and we've come to meet its founder — an abuse survivor himself. ciao, francesco. sono mark. piacere. from his tiny apartment, his site,

called the abuse network, brings together confidential tip—offs and public reports to map italy's abusers, and connect survivors with lawyers willing to help. some priests accused of sex abuse spend time in a network of sort of rehabilitation centres run by the church. there are several across italy for priests in difficulty,

as they're called. many here are drug abusers or have gambling addictions — not all of them are accused of sex abuse. but the victims of the sex abuse say that this is one way in which priests are kept away from prying eyes and away from the italian justice system. we've got very rare access to one of them now to ask the founder what goes on in here. so, the pope came here.

but survivors like mario do see a cover—up. we've discovered that, despite his confession, mario's abuser, gianni bekiaris, still works near to where his crimes are alleged to have taken place. over weeks of tracking bekiaris online, we've found how he celebrates mass in different towns. he's still listed as a priest on the website of his diocese. that a man with his past can be allowed to preach the word of god just beggars belief. should a priest, who is known to have abused, who has confessed to the abuse, who has even paid damages

to the victim, should that priest be defrocked under canon law? i'm not familiar with the case, but, if the procedure, the investigation, establishes that he has committed the crime, he should be dismissed, of course. and if there is any kind of activity that brings him into contact with minors, that goes obviously against the verdict. recent pictures of bekiaris even show he's continued to celebrate mass with minors present. we decide to find him and seek answers. bbc?

in our pursuit of the truth in a case that symbolises italy's cloak of injustice, we went up a level — to the priest's superior.

we looked into it, and the vatican told us the ban, which it claims heals and atones, does not stop an abuser celebrating mass as long as minors there are never left alone. so, it's down to loopholes, technicalities, interpretations of verdicts that mario and his son could one day find themselves at mass given

by the priest who abused him. without a fundamental shift in society, there's little hope that italy will look deep inside its soul and offer justice to those whose childhood and faith were cruelly robbed.

good evening. once again, damaging winds to come across the uk. the met office has issued an amber weather warning as storm franklin arrives over the next few hours. the amber warning is for northern ireland, with gusts of winds potentially peaking in excess of 80 miles an hour at times. now, this is storm franklin, this area of low pressure is going to continue to drift its way between iceland and the far north of scotland. it is on the southern flank where we will see the tightest of the isobars. that means the strongest of the winds, as well. not only do we see strong winds, but we've also got some heavy rain and sharp showers moving through scotland, heavy persistent rain pushing out of southern scotland into northern england and wales, as well. so, the amber weather warning will remain in force until 7am on monday morning, with gusts of wind potentially 60—80 miles an hour, perhaps one or two stronger gusts in places, as well. that has the potential to cause some significant disruption first thing in the morning, and it's notjust for northern ireland.

we are going to see strong gale force gusts of wind through irish sea coasts, in excess quite widely of 60 miles an hour, in some places, 70—75 miles an hour, as well. with that rain, the temperatures are going to fall away, so it's going to be a chilly start to our monday morning, as well, just to add insult to injury. the rain, however, will move quite swiftly south and east, and as we go through the afternoon, it will be an improving picture. the winds will start to ease just a touch, gusting around about 35, a0 miles an hour in many places, and the showers will fade away allowing for some sunny spells to come through, and after that chilly start, temperatures will recover, to top out between 8 and 13 celsius. so, as we say goodbye to monday and head towards tuesday, there is another area of low pressure in a similar position up into the far north, and that is going to bring some very strong winds and some heavy rain yet again. the rain, though, will weaken as it moves south and east, and then allow for some sunshine to come through with a trail of scattered, possibly wintry showers,

with elevation in the far north—west of scotland. top temperatures once again between 5 and 13 celsius. as we move into wednesday, it does look likely that we will start to see fewer showers around, and slightly lighter winds, and hopefully some glimpses of sunshine from time to time.

the queen has tested positive for coronavirus — and is said to be experiencing mild symptoms. the news comes ahead of her 96th birthday in april and in her platinum jubilee year. found out she was ill on the way here, quite upsetting, i hope she's all right. we want her to recover very quickly and we want to see her back to herself again as soon as possible. at the same time — a new �*living with covid' plan for england is about to be unveiled — we'll be looking at the changes. also tonight: we're on the front line in eastern ukraine, as soldiers face the possibility of a russian invasion. ukrainian troops here tell us they are ready for whatever may come. but no one knows what that will look like.

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