BishopAccountability.org
	Threatening Call Prompted Catholic Raids Denver Post June 29, 2010 http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15397776 MECHELEN, Belgium — Four days after a series of police raids on Catholic institutions in Belgium that drew sharp criticism from the pope, the reason for the unusually aggressive operation has emerged: a formal accusation that the church was hiding information on sexual abuse lodged by the former president of an internal church commission handling such cases. The declaration to the police set off four raids in which authorities seized two truckloads of documents from the commission's current leader and detained a group of bishops for more than nine hours. The former head of the commission, Godelieve Halsberghe, told a Flemish newspaper she had gone to authorities after receiving a call from an unidentified man who warned her to "watch out." Alarmed by the phone call, she took documents on about 30 cases she had handled during her tenure to the authorities and said that the church might be hiding others. The Belgian prosecutor's office confirmed that there had been a formal accusation but declined to discuss the source.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.