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	Church Vows Openness to Victims By Philippe Siuberski Edmonton Journal September 14, 2010 http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Church+vows+openness+victims/3521015/story.html Belgium's Catholic Church sought Monday to heal deep wounds caused to victims of pedophile priests, vowing to listen to those hurt by a scandal that has caused "much pain" to Pope Benedict XVI. But the plan unveiled by Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, the head of the Belgian church, disappointed groups representing victims three days after a report revealed an avalanche of abuse cases that led to 13 suicides. Leonard told a news conference the church would grant victims of sexual abuse by priests or church workers "maximum" access to officials, but did not spell out how audiences would be obtained or what could be delivered. He announced vague plans to create a centre for "recognition, reconciliation and healing" within the Church, with a target date for opening of Christmas. Leonard said the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belgium had to "listen" to victims and parishioners in order to restore personal trust. That followed the admission by a bishop who resigned that he paid a victim amid persistent media allegations of a church coverup. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope was following the situation in Belgium "very closely" after the report by a church-sponsored commission revealed decades of abuse by Belgian priests. "Like everybody, he feels much pain after the publication of the report, which again reveals the huge suffering of victims and gives us an even more vivid sense of the gravity of the crimes," Lombardi told RTL-TVI television. Following a string of similar scandals in Germany, Ireland and the United States, the dam broke in Belgium in April when the disgraced bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, quit after admitting sexually abusing his nephew between 1973 and 1986. Vangheluwe announced on Sunday that he would now leave the Westvleteren abbey where he had sought refuge for several months to withdraw "to another place, away from the Bruges diocese." "As my regrets have only increased, now I see all the harm that my actions caused," he said then. Asked if the pope would defrock Vangheluwe, Lombardi said Benedict could consider such a sanction but a decision had not been taken. "It is a decision that rests solely with the Pope," the spokesman said.
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