New Police Raids Rock Belgian Catholic Church

Monsters and Critics
January 16, 2012

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1685843.php/New-police-raids-rock-Belgian-Catholic-church

Brussels - New police raids rocked the Belgian Catholic church on Monday, as prosecutors continued a high-profile investigation into child abuse allegations.

Police seized material from the offices of the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels - the head of the Catholic church in Belgium - and from those of bishops in Antwerp and Hasselt, two cities in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders.

'We were looking for personal dossiers concerning certain clergymen whose names were mentioned in victims' declarations,' Lieve Pellens, a spokeswoman for the Belgian Federal Prosecution office, was quoted as saying by Belga news agency.

The investigation, known as 'Operation Chalice,' is 'at an important stage,' Pellens told reporters.

A previous raid in June 2010, in which bishops and a papal envoy had been questioned and held for hours, while police seized files and computers and drilled into the gravestones of two former archbishops in an unsuccessful hunt for hidden dossiers, had caused a furore.

The Vatican reacted at the time by accusing Belgian authorities of behaving 'worse than the Communists.' Prosecutors were later chastised for their methods in a judicial review.

This time, things went more smoothly.

'We had full cooperation throughout the day. Everything took place legally,' Pellens said.

'We have absolutely nothing to hide,' Clem Vande Broek, a spokesman for the Bishop of Hasselt, told Belga.

While official investigations have yet to produce any convictions, an internal committee set up by the Belgian Catholic church revealed last year that it had received nearly 500 complaints of alleged child abuse, with alleged victims being as young as two year old.

Some of the alleged crimes go back to the 1960s, and cannot be pursued in court as the statute of limitations has expired. However, last month the Belgian Catholic church said it would compensate victims with payments ranging from 2,500 to 25,000 euros (3,170-31,700 dollars).