Catholic World News News Feature

Cardinal testifies in pedophilia case December 28, 2001

In February Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Brussels testified before a court which is seeking to determine whether the archdiocese should be held legally responsible for the behavior of a pedophile priest, and for failure to provide help to his victims.

For over a year, Belgium has been shaken by a growing number of pedophilia cases. The public outrage reached a crest in 1996 when it with the discovery of serial killer who had preyed on children. Since that time, the vigorous search for child molesters has led to charges against several Catholic priests from the Brussels archdiocese. In May 1997 one parish priest from Bavegem was sentenced to a seven-year prison term after he admitted abusing boys between 13 and 16 years old. Other cases have followed, and in February the court was investigating charges against a priest from nearby St. Giles.

This case broke new ground, however, because for the first time the court raised the possibility that the archdiocese was at fault for its failure to stop the abuse. Although the court had issued a summons to compel his appearance, Cardinal Danneels insisted that he was testifying voluntarily, to show his respect for the court and his sympathy for the victims of the sexual abuse.

The cardinal told the court that he is deeply ashamed by the revelations of pedophilia. "It's a pain that could compared to the pain a father or a mother feels when a child does that which can never be accepted," he said. But he maintained that the archdiocese had not ignored the reports of child abuse. "At the time, we did all we could to investigate," he said. "Maybe we could have done more, but we were never informed of the hard facts."

Cardinal Danneels said that the Church would accept the discipline meted out by the courts to the offenders. "That's the only way to leave these events to the past and to retain the Church's moral credibility," he said.

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