Kiddi-Sex is Just sport not pedophila in the CatholicK church
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Outrage in Belgium Over Interview of Ex-Bishop By STEPHEN CASTLEand RACHEL DONADIO
Published: April 15, 2011
LONDON — A year after his resignation plunged Belgium’s Roman Catholic Church into a crisis, the former bishop of Bruges provoked almost universal condemnation on Friday, this time by admitting that he had abused a second nephew and insisting that he was not a pedophile.
In a television interview late Thursday that reopened deep wounds, the bishop, Roger Vangheluwe, 74, recounted with apparent lack of contrition events leading up to his resignation as bishop of Bruges last year, when it emerged that nearly 25 years ago he had abused a boy who was later revealed to be one of his nephews.
Those revelations prompted hundreds of people to come forward, claiming that they, too, had been victims of priests, and forced Belgium’s Roman Catholic Church into its deepest crisis of recent times.
In a broadcast from a location in France, Bishop Vangheluwe, dressed in an open-neck shirt, suggested that the 13-year relationship revealed last year had not been opposed by his nephew, and, in an unexpected new twist, he admitted having abused a second nephew for a much shorter period.
The interview with Bishop Vangheluwe, which was conducted on the Flemish channel VT4 and, at his insistence, broadcast live, prompted a storm of criticism from an array of public figures. Although he began by expressing his guilt, he conveyed little if any contrition for his actions, and he said he would not abandon the priesthood unless he was forced to do so.
Bishop Vangheluwe is not facing criminal charges because of Belgium’s 10-year statute of limitations, and the Vatican says he is receiving “spiritual and psychological treatment” outside Belgium.
But Belgium’s justice minister, Stefaan De Clerck, called on the Vatican to impose a tough punishment.
“It should be much more severe and much more complete than what has been said up until now,” he said on RTL radio.
This week, the Vatican said that its Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was evaluating the bishop’s case and that Pope Benedict XVI himself would eventually rule on the bishop’s fate. Among possible punishments, the pope could remove him from the priesthood.
During the interview, to which Bishop Vangheluwe had agreed only on the condition that it would be broadcast live, he denied that he had been driven by sexual motives.
“I have often been involved with children and I never felt the slightest attraction,” he said. “It was a certain intimacy that took place.”
“I don’t have the impression at all that I am a pedophile,” he continued. “It was really just a small relationship. I did not have the feeling that my nephew was against it — quite the contrary.”
“How did it begin?” he said. “As with all families. When they came to visit, the nephews slept with me. It began as a game with the boys. It was never a question of rape, there was never physical violence used. He never saw me naked and there was no penetration.”
Bishop Vangheluwe said that the same had applied to the boy abused for a shorter period of time and that the abuse had been restricted to the touching of genitals.
Politicians, including the Belgian prime minister, joined church leaders and those campaigning for victims in attacking the comments.
“What he has said I find terrible,” said Yves Leterme, Belgium’s prime minister. “It goes beyond what is acceptable.”
That sentiment was echoed by Karine Lalieux, the Belgian deputy who led a parliamentary committee on sexual abuse.
“I say it’s sickening, disgusting,” she said. “Mr. Vangheluwe has not understood that he has committed crimes, he has minimized and relativized his crimes. I think of the victims and of their suffering.”
Lawyers representing victims were equally shocked. “I think it is astonishing how this man does not feel any guilt, does not show any guilt,” said Christine Mussche, a lawyer for dozens of people who claim they were abused by a clergy member. “He’s saying that the victims also enjoyed this, and there is no feeling of regret at all.”
Walter Van Steenbrugge, another lawyer representing the victims, said that neither nephew wished to comment.
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