CathNews
September 15, 2010
http://www.cathnewsasia.com/2010/09/15/belgian-bishop-hits-vatican-for-not-laicizing-prelate/
 |
Belgian Bishop Guy Harpigny has criticized the Vatican for failing to laicize admitted abuser Bishop Roger Vangheluwe and said the Church is afraid to give a full apology for the sexual abuse of children by priests as this could open the door to compensation.
“If we say ‘mea culpa’, then we are morally responsible, legally responsible, and then people come wanting money,” Bishop Harpigny of Tournai, the Belgian bishops’ spokesman on abuse issues, told Belgium’s Radio 1, Reuters reports.
“We did not dare. If you officially apologise, then you are acknowledging moral and legal responsibility. Then there are people who ask for money and we don’t know what lawyers and the courts will do about that,” he said.
“We are afraid. Who will ask — the victims, the court or someone else? That’s why we are so careful.”
“I got a lot of calls, including from parliamentary deputies, that said ‘Please, give all the files to the justice authorities’,” Harpigny, who is bishop of Tournai, told La Premiere radio in another interview.
He said he thought the files should be handed over, but that some victims did not want the state involved.
Meanwhile, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Monday that the Pope had no plans for further action after a “quick decision” by the Pontiff “to accept the former bishop’s (Roger Vangheluwe’s) resignation”, the UK Telegraph says.
“Vangheluwe is no longer allowed to say mass in public. At the moment I have no knowledge of other specific measures that will be taken,” said Father Lombardi.
But speaking on Tuesday, Bishop Harpigny called on the Pope to “defrock Vangheluwe”, with or without a full ecclesiastical trail.
“I would prefer a trial by the church authorities. This would be more honest. But any signal would be a good one,” he said.
“Vangheluwe has chosen his own punishment and the Vatican does nothing.”
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.