HARROWING details of some 300 cases of alleged sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Belgium have been released by a Church investigator.
Peter Adriaenssens, according to the BBC, said cases of abuse, mostly involving minors, had been found in nearly every diocese, and 13 alleged victims had committed suicide.
Two-thirds of victims were boys but 100 girls also suffered, he said.
Belgian media have accused the Church of seeking to hide abuse despite prosecutions of abusers.
The Bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, who admitted abusing a boy
While the commission he headed had found no indication that the Catholic Church had systematically sought to cover up cases, Adriaenssens said its findings were a “body blow” to the Church in Belgium.
The child psychiatrist, who has worked with trauma victims for 23 years, said nothing had prepared him for the stories of abuse, which multiplied as former abusers gave testimony.
We saw how priests, called up by the commission and asked to help seek the truth, were willing to set up the list of 10, 15, 20 victims they abused during boarding school while the commission knew only of one.
Many alleged victims came forward to testify to the commission after the Bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned this year, admitting to having sexually abused a boy before and after becoming a bishop.
The commission’s report revealed that abuse was at its worst in the 1960s when it was so extensive that it was going on in almost every diocese and at every Church-run boarding school.
Assaults on boys usually ended by their 15th year but abuse of girls could continue into adulthood.
People, Adriaenssens said, should realise that the sexual abuse was “very bad”, which was why victims were still suffering decades later.
One alleged victim told the commission of being abused at the age of two.
A female victim testified that she had been abused at the age of 17 by a priest and had tried to seek help from a bishop in 1983.
I told him ‘I have a problem with one of your priests.’ He told me: ‘Ignore him and he will leave you alone’.
In addition to those who killed themselves, six alleged victims attempted suicide.
Victims, the commission concluded, deserved “a courageous Church which is not afraid to confront its vulnerability, to recognise it, to co-operate in finding fair responses”.
Mr Adriaenssens announced his commission’s findings after an appeals court yesterday ruled that a raid by police 10 weeks ago to seize the commission’s files was illegal, and the files could not be used by prosecutors.
The court verdict is being seen as a serious blow to prosecutors, who have yet to bring charges in the current abuse investigation.
A number of Belgian priests have been successfully prosecuted for the sexual abuse of minors in the past decade.
UPDATE – Sept 11:
In an extraordinary admission, buried in a speech made at the Vatican on September 8, Ratzinger revealed that he does not intend to change anything that might challenge the culture of child abuse that lies at the heart of the Church.
In a speech given at his general audience, the pope said that “penance” is all that is required to punish child abusers and that no structural changes are needed.
The National Secular Society quotes its President, Terry Sanderson, as saying:
The idea that a few Hail Marys or a trip to a counselling clinic is sufficient punishment for child abusers is disgraceful. This is what the church has been doing for decades – permitting abusing priests to escape justice by keeping their crimes secret and sometimes paying to silence victims.
It is now time that this culture of secrecy and cover-up was roundly challenged within the church. The Vatican could begin by handing over all the files they hold on child abuse cases to the legal authorities so that priests who have defiled children can be properly tried. As it stands, the Pope is clearly happy for the criminal priests to be protected and punished only with token penances, or at worst and rarely, with the defrocking of a cleric, provided they are not too senior.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 10th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
The number of abuse cases is reported to be as high as 476
Belgian child abuse report exposes Catholic clergy
Paedophilia expert unveils harrowing testimony and documents cases in almost every diocese
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....lic-church
September 10th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Sometimes I really wish I believed in Hell..
September 10th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Sad and sickening. But of course, there will still be people who insist that celibacy is not linked to sexual abuse. How many more children need to have their lives ruined before someone dares put two and two together?
September 10th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
@Sarah, I wonder that every time I hear Cliff Richard on the radio. Just kidding, forced celibacy, yeah, but there are perfectly happy people with no interest in sexual activities. I’ve never thought that they all start out as kiddie fiddlers enrolling in priesthood as a good cover. It’s certainly a traditional dumping ground for oddballs who might be idiots or closet gays (at least in Ireland), but their obsessive self denial/flagellation over sex is destined to erupt at some point. If they were told never to eat and put in charge of a town’s sanitation, you’d bet your life there would be a sudden jump in the amount of coprophagia too, so yeah church warped celibacy is a sure cause of sexual abuse of children.
September 10th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
And this government will still welcome this pope into the country. Stinks of hypocrisy.
September 10th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Rather unrelated but interesting. I was curious about the population of Belgium as wanted some context on 300 allegations. 300 out of how many xtians? I knew the population of Belgium was not high, having visited. Wolfram Alpha declared that 84% of Belgians are xtians. Sounded bogus. Then I found out Wolfram Alpha reports 82% of UK citizens as being xtians. There are apparently zero atheists as they get no mention. I think they mean that 82% of religious people are xtains, which misses the fact that most people don’t participate in organised religion in any meaningful way.
Oh yeah, and Mr Vangheluwe’s ridiculous hat and dress look like they’ve been made out of curtains from a budget hotel chain. What’s that all about?
September 11th, 2010 at 10:09 am
@J: According to Wikipedia there are 7 million Catholics in Belgium, about three-quarters of the total population.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.....in_Belgium
300 may be a tiny proportion but it is still 300 too many. What’s particularly shocking is that it was so widespread.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:05 am
“an appeals court yesterday ruled that a raid by police 10 weeks ago to seize the commission’s files was illegal, and the files could not be used by prosecutors”
Kiddie fiddlers in the appeals court then?
September 11th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Obviously raiding the offices of an organisation known fully well by the world to have a history of hiding evidence of crimes against humanity and trafficking away people guilty of them is something the courts should look down on. Those police could have been raiding the Pirate Bay again or something important like that…
The latest update on Ratzinger’s attitude is sickening, but not a surprising attitude. He then went on to ramble about some 12th century nun and how awesome she was because she stood against calls for radical reform at the time when the church was (surprise, surprise) rocked with scandal over the clerical abuses, this time largely over money.
http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=12341
The man is unrepentant. The UK government’s bending over backwards to accommodate him when he shows a flagrant disregard for the victims of abuse and the rule of law is an absolute disgrace to the entire country. He thinks he and the church are still untouchable, and thanks to these craven politicians he is still right.
September 11th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I have just ordered “The Case of the Pope” by Geoffrey Robertson QC. (Full page advert in New Statesman which gladdened my morning). Helena Kennedy’s comment: “A challenge no thoughtful Catholic can ignore” seems mild but apposite. Buying this book will be my small contribution to whatever I am able to do to expose this grisly man and his sick acolytes. I intend to spread the book around.
Richard Dawkins’ comment was on target as usual:
“Geoffrey Robertson is a brilliant lawyer and it shows. The clear light of his style – painstaking, thorough, dispassionate – throws into cruel relief the truth from which the Pope cannot hide.”
I don’t suppose the RC boss of the BBC, a serious Ratzo fan, or that politician, another RC, (forgotton his name – Pattinson?) shovelling money on to Ratzo while threatening the rest of us with savage cuts will read it. They might learn something and that would never do. The Ratzo tax bill now seems to be around the £25 million.
September 11th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
These people are really not right in the head.
Ex-bishop in Belgian abuse scandal goes to hiding
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....gD9I5NCFO0
“Vangheluwe gave no response to the calls for him to step out of priesthood, but said that “as of today, I will contemplate my life and future somewhere hidden, outside the bishopry of Bruges.”"
September 11th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Anonymous.
Indeed. You echo a phrase of my long dead Scot’s grannie, “He’s no richt in the heid.” What astonishes me is how Ratzo is still able to swan into the UK; so much of the media against him; evidence piled so high that it has become ridiculous, and yet still he comes. What are the covert and powerful hands at work that are propelling this contemptible man, this repellent tax funded spectacle,this throwing of superstitious sewage in the face of a disgusted public?
There has, eventually, to be an accounting for this scandal. I suspect that Cameron, Pattinson, Archbishop Nichols, that BBC boss, and the rest are thinking, “Let us hang on, just see us through this hell and it will all fade away.” I hope not. But even if it does the wreckage will be obvious.
September 11th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
The monster is wearing my grandmother’s curtains!! :-O Is there no end to their crimes?!
September 11th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
“What are the covert and powerful hands at work that are propelling this contemptible man, this repellent tax funded spectacle,this throwing of superstitious sewage in the face of a disgusted public?”
I don’t think the hands are particularly covert. They are blood soaked and well known, belonging to a man with the same initials as the disease tuberculosis…
He won’t be the only one, though; it suits anyone in politics with a conservative mindset, Catholic or not, to maintain the aura of invulnerability around such a prominent authority figure as the pope. Maintaining the status quo is very important – we can’t have the plebs thinking that if they protest enough, someone with power can be brought to book for their crimes. They have to understand that certain people are very, very far above the law. There’s a great big club… and you ain’t in it.
September 11th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Given that a priest can give a penance of telling someone to take (secular) counselling, why cannot penance for child abuse involve going into court and pleading guilty?
September 12th, 2010 at 3:21 am
Involving law enforcement would require “structural changes” to the Catholic Church, which the Pope has said are not necessary. Yes, it still hasn’t occurred to them that priests who abuse children should be reported to the police for their crimes.
September 19th, 2010 at 12:31 am
i firmly believe that this is a lie. I believe that these people making these allegations are delusional. I’m sorry, but that is what I believe. Check this page for an example of when a person was wrongly accused of abuse.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/facult.....sevil.html
For the persecutors – practice forgiveness not vengeance – it is always the better way!