Belgium, Searches for New Investigation into the Pedophile Priests

Vatican Insider
January 17, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/world-news/detail/articolo/belgio-belgium-belgica-11742/

Against paedophilia

New searches by Belgian police in the investigation into alleged abuses committed by priests against children. According to local media, the agents - by order of the judiciary as part of “Operation Chalice” - seized material from the offices of the Archbishop of Malin-Brussels and the bishops of Antwerp and Hasselt. “We are looking for personal files relating to certain prelates whose names have been mentioned in the statements of victims,” explained Lieve Pellens, spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor, quoted by the Belgian news agency, who noted that the operation is “in an important phase.”

The spokesperson also wanted to clarify that the Catholic Church- unlike in June of 2010, when the Vatican accused the Belgian authorities of behaving “worse than Communists” – provided their “full cooperation, everything has been done legally.” “We have nothing to hide,” stressed Clem Vande Broek, spokesperson for the Bishop of Hasselt.

In recent weeks, an internal committee set up by the Belgian Catholic Church revealed that it received about 500 complaints of child abuse – including of a two-year old child - by priests. Some of these crimes were committed in the Sixties, and therefore have fallen outside the statute of limitations, but last month the Belgian Church said that, regardless, it was ready to pay between ˆ2,500 and ˆ25,000 in compensation to victims.