Actually Rose, it goes much further back in Church history. In 1922, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical entitled" Crimen Sollicitationis".  From what I understand this encyclical was issued because there was a scandal at the time with priests soliciting sexual favors from lay people in the confessional box.  In this encyclical. Pope Pius XI introduced the Catholic world to "The Secret of The Holy Office", also known as the "Pontifical Secret". Anyone in the Church but particularly those in the priesthood and Hierarchy were forbidden from talking about anything that would bring scandal to the Church. The penalty for violating this order was excommunication. Reporting sex crimes to civil authorities was forbidden. In the early 1960"s this order was reissued and a copy was sent to every diocese  to be filed with the secret archives of each diocese. In 2010 Benedict issued a revisal allowing reports to be made to local authorities where local law required it