Catholic bishop Vangheluwe will not be punished for sexual abuse

Tag: germany

In a short interview with VTM, a leading Flemish television station, Rik Torfs, who is a professor of Church Law at the Catholic University of Leuven and a popular figure in television entertainment, suggests that bishop Roger Vangheluwe will not be prosecuted for sexually abusing a nephew.


Story Continues below



According to Torfs, that the pope has accepted Vangheluwe's resignation immediately, indicates that the file is a very serious one. He says that they have pondered and hesitated long and hard, but then, when Vangheluwe tended his resignation, they have reacted very quickly.
The interviewer asks Torfs why other priests remain untouched after their abuse came out, while this bishop has to leave.
Torfs doesn't agree. He says that action is taken worldwide against priests who are guilty of sexual abuse that there has been a stricter procedure since 2001, with longer periods of limitation. However, he says, it is indeed rare that bishops are being implicated, but not unheard of. He gives the example of Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, a bishop in Basel, an Irish bishop and the Austrian cardinal Groër. However, he says, it is indeed a first for Belgium.
Rik Torfs then corrects the impression some people have that archbishop Léonard would take over the diocese for a while, until a new bishop is appointed. He says this will not happen because there is no hierarchy among bishops, they are all independent heads of their particular dioceses.
The interviewer wants to find out what punishment Roger Vangheluwe will receive, in light of the fact that there will not be a judicial inquiry, whether he will be expelled from the Church.
Rik Torfs replies that nobody can be expelled from the Church[1]. He says that the worst possible penalty would be the laicisation of bishop Vangheluwe, but this will not happen because the period of limitation has expired. In the Catholic Church, there is a period of limitation of ten years after a victim reaches majority.
However, he thinks that the resignation, and the shame accompanying it is already bad enough for this man who has been so deserving in the past.
---
[1]That is actually untrue. People can be expelled (excommunicated) and it has been done. While the Vatican never took action against the Nazis (and even celebrated Adolf Hitler's birthday in Church), Nazi Joseph Goebbels was effectively excommunicated for the crime of marrying a protestant.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/291036?tp=1