Criminal law, Religion, Society

Belgium Bishop Admits To Prior Child Abuse and Resigns

Another high-ranking Catholic priest has resigned in the wake of the child abuse scandal. In Belgium, the highest-ranking bishop Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the Bishop of Bruges, has resigned after admitting that he also engaged in child abuse.

Vangheluwe issued a statement that admitted that “When I was still just a priest, and for a certain period at the beginning of my episcopate, I sexually abused a minor from my immediate environment . . . The victim is still marked by what happened. Over the course of these decades I have repeatedly recognized my guilt toward him and his family, and I have asked forgiveness. But this did not pacify him, as it did not pacify me.”

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted his resignation.

For the full story, click here,

12 thoughts on “Belgium Bishop Admits To Prior Child Abuse and Resigns”

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  3. Are you aware that the young man that this Bishop repeatedly sodomized for years was his own nephew?

    I understand that the family were afraid to speak up for years, because the RCC was so powerful in Belgium.

    Apparently a friend of the nephew was the one who had the courage to out the story, if the Bishop refused to resign.

    The nephew is very traumatized by his experience for years with his uncle and has drawn pictures of a young man screaming in his therapy.

    It is time for Pope Benedict XVI and others in the hierarchy to be deposed and prosecuted as needed.

  4. Nothing in the article about the civil authorities being involved in this instance.

  6. 1 year prior to his retirement…shoulda coulda been sooner but without further facts I have to say I admire the admission of an un-undoable wrong in the attempt to set something right.

    G*d bless this guy for having the guts to admit his transgression…especially in light of the incredibly angry atmosphere out there right now. That takes serious guts.

    “Over the course of these decades I have repeatedly recognized my guilt toward him and his family, and I have asked forgiveness. But this did not pacify him, as it did not pacify me.”

    that is not easy….

  8. So was this Deep Penetrating Oral Confession or is that Profession?

  10. So when he took the promotion to bishop he forgot he was a pedophile? Did he confess to the bishops who had to administer the sacrament of ordination to bishop that he was a pedophile” When he, as a bishop, administered the sacrament of ordination to new priests did he confess to them that they were being ordained by a pedophile?

    Now he resigns? Why?

  11. “Here we have the Bishop of Bruges wearing what all the ‘in’ pederasts are wearing this season: crimson and lace. A lovely ensemble from Vatican Studios it comes with a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. We now take you to Hell to get Mr. Blackwell’s take on this bold fashion statement.”

  12. As a technical matter, does the Pope turn in his resignation to Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit or the Celestial Bureaucracy? I’m thinking Heaven’s HR Department must by definition be a lot like Hell. It’d be a lot easier if His Papalness could just turn in his walking papers directly to the man, er, God, er Spirit . . . thingy.

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