Victims of abuse in Catholic Church sue Belgian State

BRUSSELS (BELGIUM)
Brussels Times [Brussels, Belgium]

February 18, 2025

By The Brussels Times Newsroom

Victims of abuse in the Catholic Church are suing the Belgian State – following the example of the Julie Van Espen case – after the Brussels pre-trial chamber declared the criminal case in ‘Operation Chalice’ void on Monday.

The victims’ complaint is a reaction to the Council Chamber’s decision, De Standaard reports. The latter decided not to prosecute anyone in ‘Operation Chalice‘, the investigation into sexual abuse and guilty negligence in the church.

With this decision, the chambers followed the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and the victims’ lawyers, both of whom were of the opinion that no trial was possible on the basis of the criminal file before them.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office did not want to prosecute anyone “because the facts are time-barred, or because they cannot be proven, or because they have already been judged by a court, or because the suspects are deceased”. A host of victims represented by lawyers Christine Mussche and Walter Van Steenbrugge felt that a trial no longer made sense on the basis of what they called “a handicapped file”.

“The victims should be approached with care. That has been in the law since the Dutroux parliamentary commission report. In our opinion, that principle was clearly not observed in ‘Operation Chalice’,” lawyer Van Steenbrugge told the newspaper.