Belgium's longest serving bishop quits
over child abuse committed as a priest
by Robert Wielaard
BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 23 (AP) - Belgium's longest serving bishop resigned Friday, saying he was "enormously sorry" for having sexually abused a young boy about 25 years ago.
The resignation of Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the Bishop of Bruges since 1984, was the first from Belgium since a child abuse scandal began testing the Catholic Church several months ago in Europe and the United States.
Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, Primate of Belgium and recently named Archbishop of Brussels-Malines, read a statement in which Vangheluwe announced his resignation and admitted to sexual abuse.
"When I was not yet a bishop, and some time later, I abused a boy," Vangheluwe said in the statement. He did not attend the news conference, but said Pope Benedict XVI had accepted his resignation.
"This has marked the victim forever. The wound does not heal. Neither in me nor the victim," Vangheluwe's statement said, adding that he repeatedly has asked the victim and his family for forgiveness.
"I am enormously sorry," he said. Vangheluwe had been due to retire next year.
Leonard called Vangheluwe a "great brother and dynamic bishop," but said that his transgression would shock many.
"We are aware of the crisis of confidence his resignation will set in motion," Leonard said. But he stressed the Catholic Church in Belgium was determined to "turn over a leaf from a not very distant past."
Leonard became Belgium's archbishop this year.
In his Easter homily, he addressed the pedophilia scandals that have surfaced in the Catholic Church, saying that in the past "the reputation of church leaders was given a higher priority than that of abused children."
As elsewhere, the Catholic Church in Belgium has a weak record of cracking down on sexual abusers in its ranks.
In 2000 it created a panel to look into abuse complaints that quickly clashed with the Church leadership. The panel has accused the Church of tardiness in compensating victims.
[Hey, might it not be pertinent to mention that for years, the Primate of Belgium was Cardinal Danneels, one of the heroes of the MS for being such an outspoken progressive???? I bet if Abp. Leonard's predecessor had been another conservative, his name would have been brought up and maligned!]
Hundreds of people have come forward in recent months, including in Pope Benedict's native Germany, accusing priests of raping and abusing them while bishops and other church higher-ups turned a blind eye.
This week, the Vatican has said it would do everything in its power to bring justice to abusive priests and implement "effective measures" to protect children.
It recently published guidelines instructing bishops to report abuse to police when civil laws require it. The Vatican insists that has long been church policy, though it was never before explicitly written. [If you check the AP story from Bogota in the BENEDICT thread about Cardinal Castrillon today, you will note the identical paragraph, word for word, in the story. Apparently, the AP editorial desk has a number of these pre-fabricated slugs to be inserted by the desk editor into any report about this issue!]
The Vatican has provided a translation of the full statements from Brussels:
DECLARATIONS ABOUT THE RESIGNATION
OF THE BISHOP OF BRUGES
VATICAN CITY, 23 APR 2010 (VIS) - Given below are the texts of two declarations, one by Bishop Roger Joseph Vangheluwe of Bruges, Belgium, concerning his resignation from office, and the other by Archbishop Andre-Mutien Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium. Both declarations were delivered during a press conference held at midday today in Brussels.
From Mons. Vangheluwe:
When I was still just a priest, and for a certain period at the beginning of my episcopate, I sexually abused a minor from my immediate environment. The victim is still marked by what happened.
Over the course of these decades I have repeatedly recognised my guilt towards him and his family, and I have asked forgiveness; but this did not pacify him, as it did not pacify me.
The media storm of recent weeks has increased the trauma, and the situation is no longer tenable. I profoundly regret what I did and offer my most sincere apologies to the victim, to his family, to all the Catholic community and to society in general.
I have presented my resignation as bishop of Bruges to Pope Benedict XVI. It was accepted on Friday and so I retire.
From Archbishop Andre-Mutien Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels:
We are facing a particularly serious situation. Our thoughts go first and foremost to the victim and his family, some of whom have learned the shocking news only today. For the victim this has been a long Calvary, which has clearly not yet ended.
As for Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, as a person he has the right to conversion, trusting in the mercy of God. However, as regards his function, it is vital that, out of respect for the victim and his family, and out of respect for the truth, he should resign from office. This is what he has done. The Pope immediately accepted the resignation of the bishop of Bruges, which is at this moment is being published in Rome.
The Church thus underlines the importance of not procrastinating in such cases. We hope to contribute to the rehabilitation of the victim.
The decision of the bishop of Bruges, and the calling of this press conference, express the transparency that the Catholic Church in Belgium rigorously wishes to apply in these matters, turning a new page with respect to the not-so-distant period in which the Church, and others, preferred the solution of silence or concealment.
It goes without saying that this event will cause great suffering in the whole Catholic community of Belgium, especially because Bishop Vangheluwe was considered a generous and dynamic person, much appreciated in his diocese and in the Belgian Church.
We, his confreres, are aware of the crisis of trust this will provoke in many people. Nonetheless, we dare to hope that wisdom will prevail and that the bishops, and especially the priests, of this country will not be unduly discredited as a group, because the vast majority live a lifestyle coherent with their vocation, with a faithfulness for which I here publicly express my thanks.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/04/2010 21:57]