You're listening to assignment here on the BBC World Service and a warning this program contains descriptions of sexual abuse.

Of course I was told it was a secret.

So for 25 years I've kept everything inside.

Only I know the damage within me.

We're calling this man Mario. His original words are disguised to conceal his identity.

He's never spoken to the media before. For 16 years and starting when he was 8 years old he was sexually molested and raped by a Roman Catholic priest.

He always told me I was a beautiful boy. Always complimented my parents on my looks and how educated I was.

Repeatedly he would ask them if he could come to lunch on Sundays or if I could spend a few hours with him in church after catechism.

My parents were happy to leave me the hands of a priest.

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Mario is from Italy, the country of the world's highest number of priests and with the Vatican the seat of the Catholic church in the heart of its capital.

For many Italians the church is a central to their culture as the family.

It's hierarchy has seemingly unchall Agental Authority.

And yet, there's a dark secret at its core, one that Italy seems reluctant to tackle,

the scandal of clerical sex abuse.

It remains officially undocumented and often unpunished.

Judging by other countries that have confronted the scourge, it's thought there could be

hundreds of thousands of cases here.

I'm Mark Lohan, Rome correspondent for the BBC, and in this week's assignment, I'm asking

how a culture of complicity and cover-up have helped conceal these crimes.

Mario's case revolves around the man who once held the mass he attended as a child, a priest

called Johnny Bicchiades.

...