"I know," Bevilacqua replied.
This exchange from the fall of 2003 is contained in more than 1,200 pages of secret grand jury testimony prosecutors filed in court late Friday as evidence in their pending criminal case against one of Bevilacqua's most trusted aides, Msgr. William Lynn.
The voluminous transcripts, documenting 10 grand jury appearances by the cardinal over eight months, provide a rare glimpse into a process that takes place behind closed doors and is almost never made public.
And never before in the worldwide church sex scandal has the curtain been drawn back on such a high-stakes clash between prosecutors - backed by angry grand jurors - and a cardinal determined in his defense of himself and the institution he led.
For hours on end, confronted with case after case, Bevilacqua faced tough questioning. Testifying under oath, the cardinal - a lawyer by training - parsed words, parried questions, and repeatedly pleaded a bad memory. He insisted that the church had done the best it could to protect children and safeguard the rights of priests.
After hearing his testimony and that of scores of other witnesses, the grand jury in a 2005 report all but called the cardinal a liar.
Bevilacqua, the grand jury concluded, was "not forthright" in his testimony. It said that he had been "untruthful" and that his credibility was questionable.
In fact, the grand jury wrote, he had "excused and enabled" years of abuse, but the statute of limitations barred him or other clerics from prosecution.
This year, a second grand jury castigated Bevilacqua once more. Widespread abuse was "known, tolerated, and hidden by high church officials, up to and including the cardinal himself," this report found.
