Pope Francis Finally Laicizes Belgian Bishop Guilty of Sexual Abuse

Pope Francis has (finally) punished and reduced to the lay state the Belgian bishop Roger Vangheluwe, 87 years old, guilty of sexual abuse of minors. A horrible case that had been dragging on for over ten years, when the crimes committed on his young nephew came to light. In Belgium, the affair was well known, raised repeatedly by victims' associations of pedophilia, by some priests, and even by the political world that demanded an account from the Vatican of why there was so much difficulty in administering justice. The Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, had recently intervened. First, he did so during a long meeting - last January - with the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Franco Coppola, and then by making public the issues raised during that conversation. The nuncio had been received to organize the next papal trip to Leuven on the occasion of the 600 years of the Belgian Catholic University. In a post on X, the premier denounced the scandalous delay. "I once again urged the Vatican to remove the title of bishop from Roger Vangheluwe. This is important for the victims," the premier wrote. Today, in a note from the nunciature, the papal measure and the penalty inflicted on the emeritus bishop of Bruges, who resigned from the leadership of the diocese in 2010 after being accused of abuse, are announced. He himself had admitted, in particular, the abuse of a nephew. "However, the crimes he was accused of had meanwhile become statute-barred," Vatican News reports, adding that in recent months, "new serious elements" regarding the case of the former prelate have emerged. Under the strong pressure of public opinion and the uproar caused, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith thus initiated the "review of the case." Following the new investigation, the Dicastery listened to the prelate's defense and presented all the documentation to the Pope, proposing dismissal from the clerical state, in accordance with Article 26 of the norms Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela, the motu proprio by John Paul II that came into force in 2001 on the "most grave delicts" reserved to the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, updated in 2010 by Benedict XVI and by Francis in 2021. The notification to the interested party was made yesterday, who asked to be able to reside in a place of retreat, without any further "contact with the outside world, in order to dedicate himself to prayer and penance." The same statement reads that Pope Francis "reiterates his closeness to the victims of abuse and his commitment to ensure that this scourge is eradicated from the Church." In this affair, the negative role of the former head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Cardinal Godfried Danneels (now deceased), a great elector of Pope Francis, who tried to prevent Vangheluwe's abused nephew from making the story public, also appears. In practice, the cardinal advised the victim to delay the public declaration at least until the uncle bishop who had abused him had retired. The nephew recorded that embarrassing conversation and entrusted it to the newspapers of Belgium. On the tape, the cardinal said to the victim: "It might be better to wait until next year, when he will retire." And again. "I don't know if there will be much to gain by making a lot of noise, neither for you nor for him." The then spokesperson for the diocese, Jurgen Mettepenningen at the time confirmed that the transcripts were correct even if those words did not mean a cover-up. The Belgian justice could not prosecute the sexual abuses because the crimes had meanwhile become statute-barred. Nevertheless, the Vatican's attitude of not proceeding to reduction to the lay state as has already happened for other striking cases, for example, that of the former American cardinal McCarrick, remains inexplicable. Meanwhile, the Flemish Parliament, the legislative body for the Flemish region of Belgium, last October established a special commission of inquiry into sexual abuse in the Church, following a series of television documentaries that have also shone a spotlight on the Vangheluwe case and why the bishop continues to maintain the title of bishop and to be a priest.