In a Sunday audience with pilgrims, Pope Francis denounced the “offensive and baseless allegations” made against St. John Paul II by Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-old “Vatican girl” who disappeared on June 22, 1983.

The bishops of Poland announced they will create a commission of experts to investigate cases of abuse of minors by clergy from the past, including Karol Wojtyla's archbishopric.

The fact that Cardinal Karol Wojtyla—the future Pope John Paul II—knew about abuse when he was an archbishop of Krakow, Poland, is neither new nor surprising, experts say.

According to a TV report from a Polish channel, John Paul II knew about priests who sexually abused children in his archdiocese of Krakow in the 1970s.