BishopAccountability.org
	Vatican Condemns Police Raid on Belgian Cardinals Tombs By Bruno Waterfield The Telegraph June 25, 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/7855022/Vatican-condemns-police-raid-on-Belgian-cardinals-tombs.html Police officers raided the St Rambouts Cathedral in the town of Mechelen, north of Brussels, on Thursday acting on allegations that a cache of files concerning a sex abuse cover up was hidden in the crypt. A Church spokesman confirmed that police officers opened the tomb of Leo Jozef Suenens, Belgian prelate between 1961 and 1979 and the grave of Jozef-Ernest van Roey, who was his predecessor as head of the Catholic Chrurh in Belgium from 1926 until his death in 1961. "The tombs of Cardinals Suenens and Van Roey were drilled and a camera was pushed into them apparently to see whether there were any hidden documents," said Father Eric De Beukelaer, spokesman for the cathedral. A Vatican statement yesterday expressed "deep shock over the way some of the searches were carried out yesterday and its indignation over the violation of the tombs". The latest raids took place during a meeting of bishops in the presence of the Vatican's ambassador to Belgium and the senior clerics were detained as armed police officers carried out their searches. "No explanation was given, but all documents and mobile phones were confiscated and it was inferred that nobody could leave the building. It was not a pleasant experience," said the statement. Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, the current head of the Roman Catholic church in Belgium, said that the police and prosecutors had shown "excessive zeal". "The justice system does its work and it has the right to carry out searches. Nonetheless I find it slightly surprising that it went as far as rummaging around the tombs of cardinals and that all the bishops were held until evening," he said. Investigators also raided the home of a former cardinal, taking away computers and files in a search for evidence that Catholic clergy have covered up paedophile crimes committed by priests.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.