By Vanessa Furhmans
Wall Street Journal
May 6, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703686304575228264105857100.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
Roman Catholic bishops in several countries across Europe are attempting to get ahead of a widening sexual-abuse scandal by employing a potentially risky strategy—pre-emptively digging through church archives to see what skeletons remain to be unearthed.
In Germany, Austria and elsewhere, dioceses say they have begun poring through decades of archives to see how old abuse allegations were handled, or mishandled. In many cases, in an effort to convey their seriousness and openness in addressing a wave of allegations against priests and other church officials, these dioceses have banded together and named investigatory teams run by nonpriests.
In Belgium last month, Catholic leaders said a special commission headed up by a prominent child psychologist was examining old records, and called for silent victims to speak out. A commission in the Netherlands run by Wim Deetman—a former mayor of The Hague, an elder statesman and a protestant—is set to present recommendations to bishops Friday on how to investigate new cases.
 |
| Archbishop Léonard, rear, passes a bishop before announcing Bishop Vangheluwe\'s resignation last month |
The varied response from country to country, and even diocese to diocese, contrasts with that of the Vatican, which has played little role in coordinating the response to the broadening scandal. The Vatican has argued that while it guides spiritual teachings, it is up to local dioceses and their bishops to form their own responses to the scandal.
"There are a number of initiatives and concrete measures that are rightly being announced and carried by local authorities. We appreciate and support this, but we don't want to take their place," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi. "The church is not as monolithic-centralistic as people think."
The approach of dioceses has drawn praise from some corners, for going beyond reacting to former victims' allegations. But the strategy is also a mine field. As church-appointed teams pore through records, they risk dredging up more embarrassing revelations damaging to church leaders—including possibly Pope Benedict XVI, whose former Munich archdiocese is among those digging into its past.
Many dioceses have concluded they have little choice. If the sexual-abuse scandals that unfolded over the past decade in the U.S. and Ireland offer any indication, the hundreds of similar allegations emanating in recent months from Europe could be just the beginning. Many church officials there fear the scandal could drag on for years.
"They see how many people are leaving the church and the trust that's been lost," said Barbara Schäfer-Wiegand, former social minister of the German state Baden-Württemberg, who belongs to a commission overseeing the German archdiocese of Freiburg's efforts to examine old cases. "They know they have to go about this thoroughly to assure their credibility."
In Austria, the diocese of Graz-Seckau suspended three priests in recent months after a review of cases dating back 15 to 25 years. One of the priests admitted at the time to sexual abuse and the others were prosecuted at the time for "exhibitionism" and a sexual act with a minor, a 17-year-old. Although no one has come forward with new allegations since, church officials have said they wanted to re-examine the priests' cases and have them undergo psychiatric evaluations for the sake of "maximum security."
In Belgium, Catholic leaders used April's sexual-abuse confession by Bishop Roger Vangheluwe to convey that it is serious about addressing allegations. At a late April press conference shortly after Bishop Vangheluwe offered to resign, Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard said that a special commission on sexual-abuse complaints, set up in 2000 and reconvened in 2009, was examining old records.
Child psychologist Peter Adriaenssens, 53 years old, took over the commission's helm two months ago and played a pivotal role in Bishop Vangheluwe's case.
This spring, Bishop Vangheluwe approached retired Cardinal Godfried Danneels to say he had sexually abused his nephew, the cardinal has said. The cardinal brokered a meeting between the bishop and the bishop's nephew, but the session failed to achieve a reconciliation between the two parties. On April 20, the nephew went public, filing a complaint to Mr. Adriaenssens's commission.
Mr. Adriaenssens questioned Cardinal Danneels, one of Europe's most respected clerics, about why the commission hadn't learned about the allegation earlier. A spokesman for Cardinal Danneels said the cardinal had been waiting for a second meeting between the sides but that the meeting never happened. The cardinal's spokesman says the cardinal would never have kept the allegations secret.
But two priests came forward and alleged that Cardinal Danneels had known about the alleged relation between the bishop and nephew 15 years earlier. The cardinal called a press conference to explain that he hadn't known about the allegations years before but had only recently learned of them.
"It's out of the question to hide anything," Mr. Adriaenssens told La Libre Belgique newspaper. "The church here really is trying to fix things, which is not the case everywhere."
Belgian bishops are meeting the pope in Rome on Thursday and Friday to discuss the state of the Church in Belgium and the abuse scandal.
Still, some critics have questioned how intent the church is on unearthing its skeletons. On Monday, a Belgian nonprofit group, Human Rights in the Church, published a report saying that in 1998 it had alerted the church to 87 cases of abuse, none of which were subsequently investigated.
Not true, says the church. "They never sent us any names for us to investigate," says church spokesman Eric de Beukelaer. "We replied with a letter, but there was never any follow-up." Without indications in the archives of specific allegations and suspects, there will be no further inquiry, he says.
Nor is it entirely clear what the various archive searches will yield. The task has been made more difficult in that many decades-old diocese personnel records contain only vague notes on abuse allegations or investigations. "Things were kept secret," said Hermann Haarmann, spokesman for the northern German diocese of Osnabrück.
Church researchers in Osnabrück are now interviewing past personnel directors about cases they can recall, some 30 or more years old, then following up in the archives. So far, there have been only obscure notes to pursue. "But we're not finished," Mr. Haarmann said.
One of the most sensitive audits is happening in the German archdiocese of Munich. There, a team of four researchers, including an outside lawyer, has been sifting since February through more than 5,000 personnel records spanning 60 years. That includes five years from 1977 to 1982 when Pope Benedict, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, presided over the archdiocese.
One matter that has already come to light, though not through the church's efforts, has raised questions about how the future pope handled abuse cases earlier in his career. A German newspaper reported in March that a priest who had abused boys in another diocese was transferred in 1980 to Munich during then-Cardinal Ratzinger's tenure.
The priest, the Rev. Peter Hullermann, was soon after returned to ministry and, several years later, convicted of fresh abuse. The archdiocese has said Cardinal Ratzinger was never aware of the priest's reassignment. Officials there declined to comment on the progress of their audit but said they aim to make some findings public this summer.
Contact: vanessa.fuhrmans@dowjones.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.