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	Belgian Bishop Resigns over Sex Abuse Case - Summary Earth Times April 23, 2010 http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320240,belgian-bishop-resigns-over-sex-abuse-case--summary.html Vatican City/Brussels - Pope Benedict XVI accepted Friday the resignation of a bishop in the Belgian city of Bruges who has admitted to sexually abusing a boy earlier in his career. The Vatican said Roger Vangheluwe, 74, is to quit after serving for 25 years as bishop of Bruges. "When I was still just a priest, and for a certain period at the beginning of my episcopate, I sexually abused a minor from my immediate environment," Vangheluwe said in a declaration made at a news conference in Brussels. "The victim is still marked by what happened. Over the course of these decades I have repeatedly recognized my guilt towards him and his family, and I have asked forgiveness; but this did not pacify him, as it did not pacify me," Vangheluwe added. The bishop also said recent "media storm" around the matter "increased the trauma". "The situation is no longer tenable. I profoundly regret what I did and offer my most sincere apologies to the victim, to his family, to all the Catholic community and to society in general," Vangheluwe said. Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussel Andre-Mutien Leonard, who also spoke at the news conference, said the Church's thoughts went to the victim and his family, some of whom "have learned the shocking news only today". "As for Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, as a person he has the right to conversion, trusting in the mercy of God. However, as regards his function, it is vital that, out of respect for the victim and his family, and out of respect for the truth, he should resign from office. This is what he has done," Leonard said. "The Church thus underlines the importance of not procrastinating in such cases. We hope to contribute to the rehabilitation of the victim," Leonard added. Vangheluwe's exit comes as the Catholic Church has been hit by widespread revelations of sexual molestation of children by priests in Ireland, the United States, Austria, Mexico, the Netherlands and the pontiff's native Germany. On Thursday, Benedict accepted the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare in Ireland - the third Irish bishop to quit in the wake of a government-commissioned report that accused Church officials of covering-up hundreds of abuse cases since the mid 1970s. Also this week it was announced that the bishop of Augsburg, Germany who had been accused of beating children at a Catholic children's home in the 1970s and 1980s, had tendered his resignation. Bishop Walter Mixa, who has not been accused of sexual abuse, has also been under pressure in connection with alleged financial irregularities at a children's school under his responsibility. Benedict this week recalled his emotional meeting last weekend with several men who claim that as minors they were molested by priests at an orphanage in Malta. The pontiff said he promised the victims that the church would take "action," against the abuse.
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