Flemish 1 – Vatican 0
The Vatican was shocked and outraged as Belgium police took aggressive steps to halt child sexual abuse by priests in their country. Last week authorities raided Church offices; confiscated documents and computers; detained a number of conferencing bishops; and drilled into two tombs of former cardinals. The Flemish government is apparently tired of the delays within the Belgium Catholic Church to self-investigate and prosecute pedophiles within their ranks.
According to the NY Times the Vatican Secretary of State “expressed great stupor at the way in which the seizures were conducted yesterday by Belgian authorities and indignation at the fact that two tombs were violated.” It is ironic the Church is using the term ‘violated.’ Consider the thousands of alleged violations of children around the world by trusted men of the cloth.
This move by the Belgium government reflects a growing impatience throughout Europe for the Church to increase the pace and aggressiveness of its actions to prosecute pedophile priests. It would be wise for the Vatican to cooperate rather than complain. Even their founder once advised his followers to, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Abuse Took Years to Ignite Belgian Clergy Inquiry
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