Press TV
January 12, 2011
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159779.html
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| The Roman Catholic Church in Belgium has endured some of the worst of the worldwide paedophilia scandal that has beset the Vatican. |
An official report by Belgium's Catholic Church shows less than one out of six priests implicated over child sex abuse has ever faced prosecution.
The report, handed by the church to a Belgian parliamentary inquiry late December, details 134 cases of abuse by priests over several decades.
According to the documents released by the daily Le Soir on Wednesday, the Belgian church or the judiciary had received complaints in 70 percent of the cases.
However, less than one abuser out of six was inflicted the maximum penalty, which is definitive suspension, the report says.
The paper adds that "even a fewer, 16 percent, were effectively condemned by the judiciary."
The depressing report comes as fresh revelations of sex scandals continue to emerge in the largely Catholic country of 10 million.
At the turn of the new year, Belgium's Catholic Church was once again rocked by allegations of sexual abuse -- this time in children institutions run by nuns.
This is while, a church-appointed commission launched in Belgium last September, revealed nearly 500 cases of abuse by priests and church workers since the 1950s, including 13 victims who committed suicide.
Some of the abuse victims were children as young as two.
Belgium is one of several countries in which the Roman Catholic Church is dealing with child abuse accusations against its priests.
In 2010, the Vatican was plagued by sex abuse scandals which surfaced in Catholic institutions across France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and the United States.
Following the shocking revelations, the head of the church, Pope Benedict XVI, personally came under fire for ignoring the abuse cases and building a "wall of silence" around such issues.
Experts believe that the Vatican now faces a crisis of credibility -- a predicament which is far more serious than the child sex abuse scandal.
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