Cultural forces at work in Belgian scandal

It is now clear -- and Belgian newspapers are acknowledging this as well -- that certain people in Belgium have a vendetta against him and are using the sex abuse issue as a tool to blemish his name and reputation as an intelligent and wise churchman
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Another progressive victim of a conspiracy!

The secular authorities, acting with proper zeal to uncover abuse and hierarchical cover-ups can only help the Church. After all, the splendor of truth is the truth about what happened and what should be done to correct it.
A secondary benefit may happen in the next conclave when some Cardinals, (like the Archbishop of Vienna) who have been muted in their critique will elect a Pope who will broaden the array of competencies used to currently choose bishops which appear to be:
1. They will never ordain women or bring up the subject
2. They value the institution more than the people in it. Sometimes veiled as a hermeneutic of continuity.
3. Ambitious rather than Pastoral
4. They will be terrors for homosexual catholics
5. They are not worried about collegiality being practiced as it was defined by Vatican II.

Some of the characteristics of great Cardinals in the past like Joseph Bernardin of happy memory and several of the giants between 1962 and 1975.

So rather than be shocked by Belgium's desire to find the truth, we should welcome it because it will set us free from a host of ills.

Congratulations to the Belgian authorities. This should be happening in every diocese in the world. Raping and sodomizing children is a crime against humanity.

Isn't it about time that "being a prince of the church no longer affords the kind of protection from civil authorities such a position once enjoyed." The medieval practice of ruling clerics under canon law and layfolk (mostly) under civil law is long past -- except, evidently, in the minds of some of the hierarchy who think their Divine Right to Rule the Church trumps the modern nation-state's laws. It is time to cure this medieval hangover for once and for all (but to leave intact the privacy rights of confessionals and counselors' couches)

A canon lawyer who has been working with abuse cases for the past 10 years, but is A canon lawyer who has been working with abuse cases for the past 10 years, but is restricted from speaking on the record, said in a long phone conversation recently that we are witnessing just the start of an immense reporting of sexual abuse and the start of an ecclesiastical revolution. It is unclear whether the Vatican can even understand what’s really happening.,

It is very clear to me that not only the Vatican , but the hierarchy in general are so far removed from the sesuum fidei (?sp),the way people live and think......... they don't have a clue as to how to proceed in a Christlike manner.

again we see the phrase "restricted from speaking"..... I hope everything will come out , and all the "ordained" will be at the same level as lay folks.

I think it is important to realize that the men at the Vatican really do not understand the wide range implications of the sexual abuse scandal with regarding their loss of authority, credibility and respect. The Church leadership has many bishops and perhaps some cardinals who are directly implicated in the cover-up of sexual abuse of children. This is not just a policy issue but a criminal matter. This is most likely reason that bishops and cardinals are not held accountable by the Vatican for their roles in this crisis. Is it the possible prison time that could be waiting for them? It will be interesting to see how the Italian authorities deal with the seizure of records and computers from various diocese. I imagine this may be in the works because of the lack of transparency and criminal cover-up in other European countries. It only makes the case against the hierarchy that much stronger and thus hurts and discredits the wider Church. The imperial model of the Latin Rite Church continues to crumble from the corruption and cover-up of the child abuse crisis. It only grows wider. Benedict doesn't get it at all. This, perhaps, will be the factor that brings down his papacy and sets into action a call for radical reform of the papacy and rules governing bishops. It may finally end DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY from prosecution. It's about time that the so called "princes" of the Church no longer receive protection from criminal prosecution. This may very well go all the way to the doors of Joseph Ratzinger's papal apartment. Secrets and lies must stop or the entire Vatican infrastructure will collapse. I often wonder if the Holy Spirit is orchestrating such a scenario because the hierarchy is more concerned with image and self-protection than truth and justice for those abused children.

Poor "Anonymous Scrantonion!" Another person of the "right" who wants to go back to the "good ole days" of the "black & white" church prior to Vatican II. They can only cry foul and never seem to see the whole picture. "Progressives," of which I am one, are the idiots and naysayers of the contemporary church, according to their view, and will blast us about anything that challenges against the heirarchy. We, progressives and conservites/rightests, are the Church, not the heirarcy, and we have a duty to call into question the actions of those who are smearing the name of Catholics and Catholicism. I am a convert of many years and have worked in/for the RC Church as well as volunteered many hours to the RC Church, and many friends wonder why I continue to stay in the R. Catholic Church. It is because I know that at the root, it is a Christian Church, and along with the many "Protestant" churchs, has Christ as it's center. I love the liturgy and the strong social justice history that is central to the RC Church. However, the heirarchy (with the medieval "hangover" of ruler/dictator/kingship) is smothering the growth of this Church. Pope John XIII "openend the windows (and doors) of the church" and most of the leadership has been slamming them shut ever since his death. - The "Spirit" is alive and well and is working through all of the mire and muck that is coming to the serface and we will see (perhaps not in my lifetime) a new open, collegial church. This will not happen overnight, but it will come. We've been praying for years for more MEN to join the "priesthood." Well, the prayers have been answered, we have fewer priests all the time and churches must be closed because of the priest shortage. The future, not sure when that will come, will bring married priest, and (hopefully) women priests. I remain hopeful, though sickened by constant surfacing of more and more secrecy about abuse within our church, about the future. A total overhaul, from top to bottom, of the RC Church will come, and I pray I will be alive to see it.

In the case of sexual abuse and other civil and criminal offenses, no clerical member of any church should have the protection of their church from civil authorities.

The present Pope is not reading the signs of the times correctly. It is not about secularism. Pope Benedict 16 is stuck in a midieval church and in a vision of Europe that has been disintegrating for over a century. This is the final step of the separation of Church and State in Europe. I think at Vatican II the Pope took one step into the future but got terrified and took more than two steps back. He fled into what he perceived as the security of the past along with many other people who have become terribly reactionary who are equally frightened of the changes not just in the church. I can't say that I blame them entirely, because change brings fear. For those of us who have already been confronted with those changes through difficult life challenges, we welcome the change.

That there will be a tsunami of new sexual abuse cases does not surprise me in the least. Whether in families or within the institutional church, sexual abuse and other equally detrimental behaviors are never truly handled behind closed doors. As I have discovered in my own family, there is no such thing as a "secret". Secrets have a life of their own and they often do much more damage than the truth of something as difficult as sexual abuse. That there will also be an ecclesiastical revolution is welcomed as far as I'm concerned. The issue of sexual abuse (incest, prostitution both adult and child, pornography, sexual slavery, rape and other violence against women in particular and in the population in general) is a major cause of untold mental health problems for such a significant segment of the population so I welcome the tsunami so we can see this problem in all of its ugliness. Perhaps it will force more of us to look at the reality of this ugly secret. Only then can we take the right steps towards solving this problem. We can thank the victims of the clerical sexual abuse and their families for fighting for so many decades to have their voices heard. It is not easy to go against one's church, to be villified in the process and to be stonewalled at every turn. They have reached critical mass, and now others have hope that they will be heard in addition to not having the restriction of statute of limitations imposed on them. It's not a pretty picture for most of us to contemplate especially for most of us who don't have to live with the emotional and psychological consequences of any of the above mentioned forms of abuse. More than once has the scripture that Martin Luther King used come into my mind....of "justice flowing like a might river".

So when do the criminal and canonical trials begin with regards to Bishop Roger Vangheluwe? Will he go to prison and be defrocked? Where is he now? Is he in Belgium or hiding out with Cardinal Law in the Vatican?

Here's the latest edict (which we'll never see) that has been propagated by B16:

1) All personnel records in every Chancery in the world will be immediately transferred to disk and sent to the Vatican. Future access will be only through the Papal Nuncio/Ambassador in order to assure diplomatic immunity.

2) All computers that formally held such records are to be destroyed immediately, with special atttention paid to the hard drives.

3) Going forward, all personnel matters involving clergy will be encrypted and sent directly to the Vatican. Special erasing software will be installed to guarantee that future investigators can not recover what was previously deleted.

4) All personnel matters will be conducted on a single computer and that computer's hard drive will be destroyed annually as extra insurance against recovery of previous documents.

5)If all else fails, find a typewriter from 1975 or older and type out all personnel files and send them directly to the Papal Nuncio/Ambassador for forwarding by diplomatic channels to the Vatican.

So our cardinals sit in Rome still unaware of what is happening. And they'll remain there as long as Law and Rode remain there. Of course if this were a healthy church the Pope would immediately retire; but as long as we have the church we have this will not happen. What is needed is the evangelization of Rome.

God bless the Belgian police for having the fortitude to do the right thing. The RCC culture that has covered up for the most grevious crime and sin of child abuse needs to be stopped. Those that abuse children and those who have covered up for child abuse should be severly punished.

It has become blatently obvious that "truth" transmitted through and from the hierarchical structure "top down" is arterially blocked. The truth about failings, sickness and perversity clustered at the top seeks desperately to keep it there where it can be concealed or transposed to "institutional justification" by some sick authoritarian patriarchical symbiosis. There at the top, acts can be shielded from reflective filtering through primordial,genetically engrained values such as "truth", "justice", "love", "integrity", right, wrong. Though insulated, it cannot be restrained, the rotting continues, worsens, inevitably spreads beyond the coven. When "exposed" as when the wood of a ancient ship emerges from the mud and reacts with the atmosphere then does the reality of rot emerge. This is what we are seeing; not just in Belgium or Europe but globally. It is the reality of which Cardinal Ratzinger spoke at Christmas years ago and defended, I paraphrase, - "The ordinary Catholic", he said, is a simple person. It is the role of bishops to protect them from the power of the intellectuals (the agents of understanding, the agents of challenging, of demonstration and accountability, of teaching rather than instructing).

How then can that ecclesiastical hierarchy which fits that description demand, merit, be accorded respect, obedience, obiesence, simple credibility in their self-appointment as keepers, custodians, dispensers and routes of access to "truth" and "Truth"?

How can they not see, how can we not see and demand (in some systematic, uncompromising way)that it is in the full light of day, of collegiality of "sensus fidelium" common sense and of meeting with the contemporary world that the rot is purged and healing begin.

Benedict is wrong, truth is not absolute and out there. Truth is in the meeting of sensing with the sensed; perception with the percieved; knowing with the known. The world of "secularism" and "relativism" is not the world of the evil one to be shunned but the world of the creator to be embraced and engaged to expunge its rot, nurture its vitality and to heal its hurts.

here's a good read dv

It's about time there are no princes only carpenters.

Hooray for Belgian Orthorities. Raids such as theirs should be happening
everywhere in the world where abuse of children is suspected.

The rightwing or "traditionalists" have destroyed the European Church. Their goal was to save it for pathetic central European racist reasons. The people of the world no longer care what the Church's rules on child rape are. From now on this is a civil criminal issue. The Church can decide on their clerical status while these perverts serve their sentences in jail.

down here in Australia it seems more and more apparent that no matter how much is written/broadcast/tweeted/spoken etc etc, that the hierarchy of the church and their supporters simply don't get it.
The world has changed

Could someone link this to the current political situation in Belgium, by which the wealthier Flemish-speaking North wishes to separate itself from the francophone citizens of the South? It apparently is not a case of Protestant vs. Catholic (as the Protestants mostly further north in the Kingdom of the Netherlands). Or is this conflict missing from Catholic parishes?
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Thanks!

Paulte - Your remarks were appaling.

Say what you will about the church’s “clerical culture” and the sex scandal but, the bad news is that EVERYONE was in it. Many parents did not protect their kids, the police did not want to get involved, the church was covering it up, etc. There’s enough blame to go around

As the latest explosions regarding RC clergy sex abuse and the perpetuation of bishops ignoring its effect on victims hightens, I have been reading TREASURE IN CLAY, The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, in particular his chapter on "Desiring the Episcopacy," I remember Bishop Sheen on TV, and am not considered a "fan" of his, but in that chapter there many, many passages I could quote that I think shed some perspetive on this practically world-wide crisis. Just a few:
"Today bishops are often criticized for the wrong reason. In the Book of
Revelation , we are condemned for want of spirituality. The danger today may be the primacy of administration over love. Few know what goes on in our hearts--our worries and our heartaches."
"Looking back over my office of bishop, these observations have struck me: 1. The bishops are a gift of the Father to the Son.
2. Bishops continue the Mission of Christ.
3. The Lord is not always pleased with us."

A good article and written with restraint and with an on-the-scene empathy. For that reason the following items struck me: 1)there are "hopes the new (Vatican)office (of 'New Evangelization')will clear up problems created by secularism in Western Europe." My question here is this: will the office also attempt to clear up the problems that led to creation of secularism in Western Europe (and elsewhere) and that contribute to its growth in strength? In other words will this office go to the root of the problem? 2)the author points to a "tsunami" of people coming with reports of sexual abuse cases over the past ten years. How will the office for "New Evangelization" and the existing offices and the church deal with these revelations/abuses of power and wealth? 3)the author really makes an explosive statement in an understatement that can only come from an academic: it's "unclear whether the Vatican CAN EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING..." Haven't scholars, caring clerics, laity, vowed religious and all other caring people been saying this for years in less restrained language: "They just don't GET it!" Tsunamis change things: first by destruction and then by rebuilding. Sometimes there is a long time of desolation and despair intervening..... but the Holy Spirit, Advocate, is here with us ....

One of Europe's most secularized countries has a) 'progressive' bishops and b) a horrendous secular sexual abuse crisis.

Does the Flanders-Walloon division in Belgium have any effect on this Catholic Church crisis? I realize that the Kingdom of the Netherlands is mostly Calvinist and the Kingdom of Belgium Roman Catholic, but the two language groups of Belgium are drifting apart politically. There was even a recent government fight over the colors of the license plates, the Walloons claiming that the proposed yellow was too Flemish. I think red-on-white was selected. Does the linguistic divide add to the Church's current problem?
Thanks.

The Belgian Church released a pervert catechism. Their progressivism and liberalism has all blown up in their faces. Is it any wonder that the same men who released the Catechism were perverts themselves? Hope the mess gets cleaned up and orthodox Catholic Faith returns.

If Vangheluwe is called back to Rome to hold hands with Law, then it will not take a village, but a tsunami to change the Church.

"It is now clear -- and Belgian newspapers are acknowledging this as well -- that certain people in Belgium have a vendetta against him and are using the sex abuse issue as a tool to blemish his name and reputation as an intelligent and wise churchman."

A few names of the certain people would be helpful. It certainly is true however that many Belgians who for ages have been oppressed and censored by the Church (untill the 70's it was difficult to get a job in one of the big banks if you were not a catholic, people who divorced lost their jobs etc.) are presenting a bill to the Church now. But there is no proof whatsoever of a conspiracy against Danneels. Untill further notice, this claim is biased.

Danneels knew about the abuse because he has been called as a witness in two cases where priests were accused of paedocrimes. Secondly, the tsunami of accusations has started later in Belgium then in other European countries, but the Belgian bishops were sure IT would not happen in their yard, though they knew about dozens of cases. Thirdly, Danneels has been warned several times since 1992 by a group of priests, victims and sympathizers. Danneels has failed to intervene. I would not call that the behaviour of "an intelligent and wise churchman".

This truly is the most schocking aspect of the abuse in the Church drama. There was public knowledge, at least since the 1950's. The priests that have stood up and spoken can be counted on two hands. They all have been ostracised by the Church, an organisation whose core business is moral guidance.

Anyone who can not see the moral bankruptcy of the Vatican, is as blind as the Church officials who have seen their interests only and not the Ten Commandments and the words of Jesus.