VATICAN CITY (RNS) Belgian authorities on Tuesday (June 29) called Vatican criticisms “over the top” after police raided the home of the country's archbishop and the offices of a church-backed commission investigating clerical abuse.
Pope Benedict XVI called the raids “surprising and deplorable,” and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone described the raids as unprecedented “even under communist regimes.”
Responding to Rome's strong reaction, Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere stressed the independence of the country's judiciary and its freedom to investigate.
“(There are)very elementary principles of having a separation of powers and accepting that the judiciary has to do its work,” he told Radio Netherlands. “That's crucial for every democratic state.”
In the twin raids last Thursday (June 24) outside Brussels, officials seized documents, computers and cell phones from Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard's home. Bishops attending a conference were detained for nine hours, and the tomb of an archbishop was opened and video searched.
More sensitive files were impounded at a second target, the headquarters of a body set up in 1998 to investigate pedophilia within the church.
On Monday, the truth commission resigned en masse, with chairman Peter Adriaenssens pointing to a breach of confidentiality of nearly 500 victims whom he said had been reluctant to make complaints to police.
“I respect Peter Adriaenssens, but his commission was created by the church,” Glenn Audenaert, head of Belgium's judiciary police, told The Associated Press. “That commission cannot start a prosecution. Only the justice department can.”
The raids were sparked by accusations of hidden documents made by the commission's chairwoman, Godelieve Halsberghe. The retired magistrate presented police with around 30 case files she had handled between 2000 and 2008.
The number of abuse complaints grew to near 500 after the resignation of Bishop Roger Vangheluwe last April, when the 73-year-old confessed to sexually abusing a boy.
Abuse victims groups welcomed the police intervention in Belgium, one of several European countries hit by clerical abuse revelations in the past year.
“The confidentiality of victims is extremely important, but the safety of kids is even more so,” said Joelle Casteix of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “If the police raid helps expose even one child-molesting cleric or complicit church official ... it will have been well worth it.”
