Pope Benedict has intervened directly in a row over police raids on Roman Catholic Church properties in Belgium on Thursday. The raids were part of an investigation into child sex abuse. The Pope called the police's conduct "deplorable" and said the autonomy of the church must be respected. However, the Belgium justice minister said police procedures were followed correctly. Reporting from Rome, David Willey.

The Pope expressed his displeasure at what he called "surprising and deplorable police tactics". Last Thursday, police raided the building where Belgium bishops were meeting to discuss, among other matters, the pedophile priest crisis in their country. The bishops weren't allowed to leave for 9 hours. They had to surrender their mobile telephones while police took away several hundred confidential files. Earlier, the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone had called the raid "unheard of, even in communist countries".