The disgraced bishop admits that he did, in fact, abuse two of his nephews, and not just the one as originally charged. He went on television to protest his relative innocence.
Ah sure and it was only superficial abuse, says Roger Vangheluwe, previously the bishop of Bruges.
Superficial, he says? Does that mean that the average person wouldn't notice much of anything about the two boys who were molested, one over the course of thirteen years? No scars on the surface, no bruising of exposed flesh.
He gave the boys large sums of money, but that didn't keep them from talking. And talking about what? Vangheluwe didn't see it as anything sexual. Besides, the one nephew wasn't against the intimacy, no, not in the least.
All the harm that was caused must have been entirely internal.
Therefore, the ex-bishop can confidently state that he's not a paedophile.
Where is the clergyman now?
The Vatican told him to leave Belgium last week amid the uproar. Get yourself some spiritual treatment, son. Reports place Vangheluwe in a French monastery where we can assume he's praying his heart out.
So much trouble he's caused. Until now, all the Irish bishops who came under fire for protecting serial abusers in the clergy were allowed to resign. What's to be done when it's the bishop himself who's the pervert?
He can be defrocked, but that only brings more unwanted attention to the sex abuse crisis that continues to roil the Church. Doing nothing, however, won't quiet the faithful followers either. Hiding him in a French monastery certainly hasn't been effective at quelling unrest.
Belgium's justice minister has had about enough, and he's calling on the Vatican to impose some harsh penalties on a man who doesn't think he did all that much harm.
All that was hidden is out in the open and the world is seeing what's been brushed under the rug for so long.
Time to clean house, do you think, instead of piling things in closets and hope the guests don't open a door?
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