ABOUT THE CHURCH AND THE VATICAN

In Church scandal,
dioceses take the lead
By VANESSA FUHRMANS And JOHN W. MILLER

May 7, 2010

Roman Catholic bishops in several countries across Europe are attempting to get ahead of a widening sexual-abuse scandal by employing a potentially risky strategy—pre-emptively digging through church archives to see what skeletons remain to be unearthed.

In Germany, Austria and elsewhere, dioceses say they have begun poring through decades of archives to see how old abuse allegations were handled, or mishandled.

In many cases, in an effort to convey their seriousness and openness in addressing a wave of allegations against priests and other church officials, these dioceses have banded together and named investigatory teams run by nonpriests.

In Belgium last month, Catholic leaders said a special commission headed up by a prominent child psychologist was examining old records, and called for silent victims to speak out.

A commission in the Netherlands run by Wim Deetman — a former mayor of The Hague, an elder statesman and a Protestant — is set to present recommendations to bishops Friday on how to investigate new cases.

The varied response from country to country, and even diocese to diocese, contrasts with that of the Vatican, which has played little role in coordinating the response to the broadening scandal. The Vatican has argued that while it guides spiritual teachings, it is up to local dioceses and their bishops to form their own responses to the scandal.

"There are a number of initiatives and concrete measures that are rightly being announced and carried by local authorities. We appreciate and support this, but we don't want to take their place," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi. "The Church is not as monolithic-centralistic as people think."

Some key events in Europe's unfolding sexual-abuse scandal:
1993: Bishop Philippe Bar of Rotterdam resigns after sexual-abuse allegations.
1995: In Netherlands, world's first commission to investigate sexual abuse by clergy.
1998: Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer resigns amid sexual abuse allegations
2000: Belgium sets up investigative commission after high-profile cases of child sex abuse, in and outside the church
2002: German bishops establish guidelines for dealing with abuse cases.
2009: Belgium sets up second investigative commission, nine years after its first, headed by child psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens.
Feb. 25, 2010: German church appoints bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, to coordinate its response to sexual-abuse scandal.
March 8, 2010. Netherlands' Church launches new investigative commission headed by elder statesman Wim Deetman, pledge new era of transparency.
March 23: Danish church starts inquiry into old abuse cases.
March 28: Austrian church establishes independent commission to investigate claims.
March 30: German bishops set up telephone hotline for abuse allegations; thousands call within first few days.
April: Belgian Bishop Roger Vangheluwe admits to past sexual abuse, resigns. Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard asks new victims to come forward.

The approach of dioceses has drawn praise from some corners, for going beyond reacting to former victims' allegations. But the strategy is also a mine field.

As church-appointed teams pore through records, they risk dredging up more embarrassing revelations damaging to Church leaders — including possibly Pope Benedict XVI, whose former Munich archdiocese is among those digging into its past.

Many dioceses have concluded they have little choice. If the sexual-abuse scandals that unfolded over the past decade in the U.S. and Ireland offer any indication, the hundreds of similar allegations emanating in recent months from Europe could be just the beginning. Many church officials there fear the scandal could drag on for years.

"They see how many people are leaving the Church and the trust that's been lost," said Barbara Schäfer-Wiegand, former social minister of the German state Baden-Württemberg, who belongs to a commission overseeing the German archdiocese of Freiburg's efforts to examine old cases. "They know they have to go about this thoroughly to assure their credibility."

In Austria, the diocese of Graz-Seckau suspended three priests in recent months after a review of cases dating back 15 to 25 years. One of the priests admitted at the time to sexual abuse and the others were prosecuted at the time for "exhibitionism" and a sexual act with a minor, a 17-year-old.

Although no one has come forward with new allegations since, church officials have said they wanted to re-examine the priests' cases and have them undergo psychiatric evaluations for the sake of "maximum security."

In Belgium, Catholic leaders used April's sexual-abuse confession by Bishop Roger Vangheluwe to convey that it is serious about addressing allegations.

At a late April press conference shortly after Bishop Vangheluwe offered to resign, Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard said that a special commission on sexual-abuse complaints, set up in 2000 and reconvened in 2009, was examining old records.

Child psychologist Peter Adriaenssens, 53 years old, took over the commission's helm two months ago and played a pivotal role in Bishop Vangheluwe's case.

This spring, Bishop Vangheluwe approached retired Cardinal Godfried Danneels to say he had sexually abused his nephew, the cardinal has said. The cardinal brokered a meeting between the bishop and the bishop's nephew, but the session failed to achieve a reconciliation between the two parties. On April 20, the nephew went public, filing a complaint to Mr. Adriaenssens's commission.

Mr. Adriaenssens questioned Cardinal Danneels, one of Europe's most respected clerics, about why the commission hadn't learned about the allegation earlier. A spokesman for Cardinal Danneels said the cardinal had been waiting for a second meeting between the sides but that the meeting never happened. The cardinal's spokesman says the cardinal would never have kept the allegations secret.

But two priests came forward and alleged that Cardinal Danneels had known about the alleged relation between the bishop and nephew 15 years earlier. The cardinal called a press conference to explain that he hadn't known about the allegations years before but had only recently learned of them.

"It's out of the question to hide anything," Mr. Adriaenssens told La Libre Belgique newspaper. "The church here really is trying to fix things, which is not the case everywhere."

Belgian bishops are meeting the Pope in Rome on Thursday and Friday to discuss the state of the Church in Belgium and the abuse scandal.

Still, some critics have questioned how intent the church is on unearthing its skeletons. On Monday, a Belgian nonprofit group, Human Rights in the Church, published a report saying that in 1998 it had alerted the church to 87 cases of abuse, none of which were subsequently investigated.

Not true, says the Church. "They never sent us any names for us to investigate," says Church spokesman Eric de Beukelaer. "We replied with a letter, but there was never any follow-up." Without indications in the archives of specific allegations and suspects, there will be no further inquiry, he says.

Nor is it entirely clear what the various archive searches will yield. The task has been made more difficult in that many decades-old diocese personnel records contain only vague notes on abuse allegations or investigations.

"Things were kept secret," said Hermann Haarmann, spokesman for the northern German diocese of Osnabrück.

Church researchers in Osnabrück are now interviewing past personnel directors about cases they can recall, some 30 or more years old, then following up in the archives. So far, there have been only obscure notes to pursue. "But we're not finished," Mr. Haarmann said.

One of the most sensitive audits is happening in the German archdiocese of Munich. There, a team of four researchers, including an outside lawyer, has been sifting since February through more than 5,000 personnel records spanning 60 years. That includes five years from 1977 to 1982 when Pope Benedict, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, presided over the archdiocese.

One matter that has already come to light, though not through the Church's efforts, has raised questions about how the future Pope handled abuse cases earlier in his career. A German newspaper reported in March that a priest who had abused boys in another diocese was transferred in 1980 to Munich during then-Cardinal Ratzinger's tenure.

The priest, the Rev. Peter Hullermann, was soon after returned to ministry and, several years later, convicted of fresh abuse. The archdiocese has said Cardinal Ratzinger was never aware of the priest's reassignment. Officials there declined to comment on the progress of their audit but said they aim to make some findings public this summer.




Belgian bishops dismiss US sex abuse norms
hailed by Vatican but vow firm response



ROME, May 7 (AP) — Tough U.S. norms about dealing with clerical sex abuse that have been hailed as a model by the Vatican aren't appropriate for Belgium, even as it deals with dozens of new reports of priests molesting children, a leading archbishop said Friday.



Brussels Archbishop Andre-Mutien Leonard said the context in which the U.S. norms were created — amid a major scandal in 2002 — required a much tougher response than what Belgium or Europe requires. But he said the Belgian church nevertheless was taking a firm stance against pedophile priests, albeit a more measured one than in the U.S.

"In Belgium, we are truly determined to be firm, transparent and rigorous on this question, but perhaps the European context, the Belgian context is not the same as the American context," he said. "In Belgium, we always like to speak in a language that can be very firm but one might say 'velvety' — a bit soft. But firm."

Leonard spoke to reporters Friday after a week of previously scheduled meetings with Vatican officials that followed the April announcement that the country's longest-serving bishop, Roger Vangheluwe, had resigned after admitting he sexually abused a boy.

The revelation has shaken the Belgian Church, sparking what Leonard has said was a "crisis in confidence" in an institution that has already seen a sharp decline in the number of priests in recent years.

The Pope addresses the Belgian clergymen Saturday.

Cardinal Joseph Levada, the American who heads the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is in charge of clerical abuse cases, has said the U.S. norms could be a model for bishops around the world — as well as for Boy Scouts, public schools and other institutions catering to children.

"I do think that the United States can rightly offer a model and I will look forward to helping my brother bishops around the world see what can be done if you take good concrete steps," to screen and educate priests and establish safe environment programs for children, Levada told U.S. public broadcaster PBS last month.

The U.S. norms, which the Vatican accepted as Church law in the U.S., bar credibly accused priests from any public church work while claims against them are under investigation. Diocesan review boards, comprised mostly of lay people, help bishops oversee cases. Clergy found guilty are permanently barred from public ministry and, in some cases, ousted from the priesthood.

The U.S. policy does not specifically order all bishops to notify civil authorities when claims are made. Instead it instructs bishops to comply with state laws for reporting abuse, and to cooperate with authorities. All dioceses were also instructed to advise victims of their right to contact authorities themselves.

The Belgian church in 2000 created an independent panel of experts to look into abuse complaints, but it quickly clashed with the Church leadership. The panel has accused the Church of tardiness in compensating victims.

Leonard recently posted an appeal on the website of the Belgian church's news agency urging victims and the abusive priests themselves to report abuse to civil authorities, or to the panel of experts at the very least if the statute of limitations has expired.

He didn't mention the duty of bishops to report abuse. Recently the Vatican posted a policy on its website saying bishops should report abuse to law enforcement where civil laws require it.

Hasselt Bishop Patrick Hoogmortens said Friday that clergymen aren't required by law to report such abuse in Belgium. But he said they do so when there is an "urgent" need to remove an abusive priest.

He said that since the sex scandal erupted in Europe nearly two months ago, Belgium's panel had received reports from more than 150 alleged victims.