"Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed, or not even created," German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said in a speech to a landmark Vatican summit on tackling pedophilia in the clergy.
"Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were regulated and silence imposed on them.
"The stipulated procedures and processes for the prosecution of offenses were deliberately not complied with, but instead cancelled or overridden," he said.
Marx was speaking on the third day of an unprecedented meeting of the world's top bishops, which Pope Francis has called in an effort to get on top of a crisis that has dogged the Roman Catholic Church for decades.
The ongoing scandals have escalated into a crisis which has touched many countries across the globe, with recent cases affecting Chile, Germany and the US.
Investigations have revealed that in many cases priests accused of assaulting minors were transferred to other parishes as bishops turned a blind eye to protect the Church's reputation.