More than a decade before police got wind that a priest had molested several altar boys in small towns in the Ottawa Valley, Vatican and Canadian church officials knew about the matter and discussed in a letter how to keep it secret.

The letter, written in 1993, focused on protecting the church's image by preventing the scandal from becoming public - the very essence of an international wave of allegations now battering the Roman Catholic clergy and the Vatican.

Read the entire Globe and Mail article here.