was revealed in a report published Friday.
The one concrete step he announced was that the Church in Belgium would set up a new center for victims to focus on “recognition, reconciliation and healing.”
That 200-page document, from an internal commission set up by the church, discussed more than 300 allegations of abuse over several decades and included harrowing testimony from victims, one of whom reportedly had first been abused from the age of 2. Thirteen people are thought to have committed suicide as a result of abuse, the report said.
The internal commission, led by Peter Adriaenssens, a prominent psychiatrist, decided to wrap up its work after a police carried out a series of high-profile raids on church property in June. In one raid, the police searched the local church headquarters in Mechelen, disturbing the tomb of a cardinal in an unsuccessful hunt for proof of a cover-up.
Still, after the release of the report the archbishop promised to engage with the victims as much as possible.
“We must listen to their questions to re-establish their dignity and help them to heal the suffering they have endured,” he told a news conference in Brussels.
But there was no clear proposal for pursuing the perpetrators of abuse or for compensating their victims, largely in part because much of the wrongdoing took place more than 10 years ago, past the statute of limitations — a fact that disappointed some groups representing those affected.
The scandal first became public when the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned in April after admitting he had abused a boy later revealed to be his nephew. Mr. Vangheluwe said Saturday that he would leave the Trappist monastery where he had been living and go into hiding
(newyorktimes)