Belgian Cardinal Danneels condoned sex-abuse silence

[Tank]

Belgian Cardinal Danneels condoned sex-abuse silence

The former head of the Catholic Church in Belgium tried to stop a victim of sex abuse from going public with their story, Church officials have confirmed.

During a meeting in April, Cardinal Godfried Danneels advised the victim to delay a public statement until the bishop who abused him had retired.

Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who was also at the meeting, admitted to the abuse in April and resigned...

That bastard and the bishop, should both be excommunicated.

[Asmodean]

...Excommunicated, then Crusaded against. Yup. Been too long since the last honest-to-zombiegod crusade  

[humblesmurph]

This is kind of scary tip of the iceberg type stuff here. Maybe only a few priests did the unspeakable, but how many religious authorities tried to help cover it up?  It stands to reason that they would want to delay the inevitable outing of a priest as a fucking monster so they could get in front of the story and do as much damage control as possible. Whatever is best for the Church, right?  But the same logic makes it reasonable to try to shut the poor child up all together.

[Sophus]

Somebody will read about this in a textbook some day. "Wait... the twenty first century?  Twenty first? Two - one? Really?"

[Thumpalumpacus]

"By the fruit shall ye judge the tree."

[SSY]

Excommunicated? Why not ban them from their friend's treehouse as well? I think it deserves a real punishment.

[Tank]

Excommunicated? Why not ban them from their friend's treehouse as well? I think it deserves a real punishment.

Well yes.  I was expecting appropriate punishment in the real world as well