When the New York Times did an article this September on the anguish of the Belgian Catholic Church in the wake of clergy sex abuse scandals, my initial reaction was, "well, duh..." After all, only the most blindly faithful could fail to notice how poorly the RCC was living up to its role as shepherd to its flock.
It never referred any cases to the police and when allegations of priestly sex abuse finally emerged, the Church opposed the investigation and cooperated with the secular authorities only when search warrants forced them to. That was their response to a government which subsidizes clergy salaries, pensions and building upkeep to the tune of $417 million a year (most of it going to the RCC).
The nation's longest-serving bishop, Roger Vangheluwe, was forced to resign in disgrace after his nephew revealed that the bishop had been sexually abusing him for 13 years. His superior, Archbishop Godfried Danneels, who just retired as head of the Church in Belgium, did so under a cloud after he was caught on tape trying to persuade Vangheluwe's nephew not to reveal his uncle's crimes until after Vangheluwe retired.
It's a small country and, as the article points out, 475 such cases are already known and 13 of the clergy abuse victims have committed suicide so far. So it's no wonder that so many churches in Belgium are nearly empty. The wonder is that anyone goes to them at all.
The RCC scandals in Belgium haven't occurred in a vacuum either. The pattern is the same in almost every part of the world where the Church has a presence. It's not merely that some clergy sexually abuse children; it's in how the Church has handled it. Until very recently, there has been little or no cooperation with secular authorities. Priests suspected of abuse have been shuffled off to other parishes, even other countries, rather than turned over to the police. The hierarchy's first thought has generally been to protect the Church rather than its parisioners... or the victims. Many of the latter have actually been told that the abuse was their own fault and they should shut up about it.
Recently, the Church has been trying to show its more sensitive and supportive side. In Belgium, for instance, Danneels successor, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, released a 200-page report on clergy abuse prepared by Peter Adriaenssens, a child psychologist who worked with hundreds of the victim. Though he made no apology for the abuse and asked for more time to formulate a more considered response, Archbishop Leonard did promise to open a center for the victims. That was in September.
Unfortunately, the new archbishop was in the news again in October when a collection of interviews he gave in 2006 appeared in a newly published translation of his book. Basically, he stated that the AIDS epidemic is basically "nature's revenge," a “sort of inherent justice” resulting from the “mistreatment of the profound nature of human love”.
When the press published what he said, the archbishop defended it in a posting on the Church website:
“When we adopt a form of behaviour that is not right, there are consequences that let us know that it’s not correct,” Leonard said.
“At the beginning of this epidemic, if I’ve understood the scientific articles, there were risky practices, sex with multiple partners, anal relations instead of vaginal which allowed this proliferation to happen. So we can say, if we want to reason in that way, that nature is taking revenge if you don’t use your body correctly.”
From a Catholic News Asia report:
In the book, a journalist asks Leonard if he believes AIDS to be a punishment from God. He says no, but adds that just as nature reacts when we abuse the environment, “when we mistreat human love, it ends up perhaps getting its revenge”.
Political leaders, media, medical institutions and gay rights campaigners have all lined up to denounce his words.
Good luck with that sensitivity thing, your excellency.
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Comments
The coverups by the churches are sickening and in some ways that's even more evil than the abusers themselves. The reason is that it exacerbates the problem and allows it to continue. From that point of view the church is directly responsible for allowing more kids to come to harm. The clergy who protect the abusers should be locked away right there next to them.
The Europeans are way ahead of Americans in seeing the stupidity and evil here.
It is actually AMAZING that so many Catholics DO stay with the church in spite of how much they have REPEATEDLY, CONSISTENTLY and SYSTEMATICALLY allowed so many priests molest and rape so many little children.
yes another case of the church thinking they are above the law, and yet Americans want a church state
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