Wayne
This is todays good news.-s-
Ex-bishop admits abusing 2 nephews
Associated Press / April 15, 2011 BRUSSELS —
A former Belgian bishop at the center of one of the Roman Catholic church’s biggest pedophile scandals said yesterday that he had abused two nephews and insisted he had no plans to abandon the priesthood.
In his first television interview since the scandal broke a year ago, Roger Vangheluwe claimed he paid one nephew he abused for years tens of thousands of euros in support, but denied that it was meant to keep him silent.
He called 13 years of sexual abuse of one nephew, which started when the boy was 5 years old, no more than “a little piece of intimacy.’’ He said the abuse of a second nephew was very short.
He said he fully realized what he did was wrong, and often went to confession about it. Vangheluwe, 74, resigned a year ago, just as the sex abuse scandal was spreading across Europe.
The acknowledgment of more abuse and his attempts to minimize its impact immediately caused an outcry. Vangheluwe said the 13-year abuse of his nephew “started as, I would call it, a game. And in fact it never went much beyond that,’’ he told VT4 network.
“I had the strong impression that my nephew didn’t mind at all,’’ he said. “To the contrary. It was not brutal sex. I never used bodily, physical violence.’’
Walter Van Steenbrugge, the lawyer for the nephew, responded by saying that “knowing what happened, I want to ask him what he then understands to be brutal sex.’’
He also denied Vangheluwe’s claim that he paid the victim $36,000.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company. |
