Belgian clerical sexual abuse scandal continues

This Belgian TV video is called Belgian Bishop Admits Sexual Abuse of Boy – Sends Shockwave through Belgium.

From KW.be in Belgium:

A Belgian court will soon question Roger Vangheluwe, and a second victim of the former bishop of Bruges will be heard as well.

A second victim, apart from the case of sexual abuse of the bishop’s nephew, which was already known.

From the Catholic Culture site:

Belgian bishop wants more Vatican action against abusive prelate

September 15, 2010

A Belgian bishop has questioned why the Vatican has not taken stronger disciplinary action against a bishop who admitted to sexual abuse.

Bishop Guy Harpigny of Tournai, the chief spokesman for the Belgian hierarchy on sex-abuse issues, asked why Bishop Roger Vangheluwe has been allowed to go into hiding, without answering to the Holy See for his admitted years of abuse. “Vangheluwe has chosen his own punishment and the Vatican does nothing,” Bishop Harpigny complained.

The Belgian prelate expressed the view that Bishop Vangheluwe should be laicized. But in any case the disgraced bishop should be disciplined, he said. “I would prefer a trial by the church authorities. This would be more honest. But any signal would be a good one,” he said.

Bishop Harpigny also conceded that Belgian Church leaders had been slow to admit the sex-abuse problem, because an open discussion of the issue might open the Church to legal claims. “If you officially apologize, then you are acknowledging moral and legal responsibility,” he said. “Then there are people who ask for money and we don’t know what lawyers and the courts will do about that.”

See also here.

Pope admits church lacked vigilance: Pontiff criticises own church over sex abuse scandal, saying he was shocked: here.

It may seem as if the Vatican has no moral authority left to lose but with his description of Britain as a “third world country”, Cardinal Walter Kasper has done his best: here.

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Scotland on Thursday and courted controversy straight away by attacking Britain’s “modern and multicultural society”: here.

Vatican’s financial dealings with Mussolini fascism: here.

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