'No Belgian church escaped sex abuse', finds investigation

[Poll_Blind]

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Child sex abuse by clergy or church workers has taken place in every Roman Catholic congregation in Belgium, according to an independent commission investigating paedophilia allegations.

Investigators, working with the support of the Belgian Catholic Church received 475 complaints of child abuse committed in the 1950s through to the late 1980s by Catholic clergy.

"We can say that no congregation escapes sexual abuse of minors by one or several of its members," the commission concluded.

--snip--

"None of us was prepared for the severity of some of the accounts of abuse that we were given. All of us at one time questioned our faith in God, the Church and humanity."

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/7994705/No-Belgian-church-escaped-sex-abuse-finds-investigation.html

---

Very disturbing. About ten years ago I was traveling through Europe and when I was in Holland (at the Sex Museum (NSFW!) to be specific) someone was talking with a docent about how recently the Netherlands had outlawed child pornography. The museum guide got more than a little miffed at the direction the conversation had taken and basically said that most of the child pornography and human trafficking in Europe is/was from Belgium. The reason it stuck with me was how miffed the Dutchman got and how my internal response was "Yeah, like that matters much."

Anyway, very disturbing.

PB

[indepat]

1. Enough to make one wonder if the Holy Roman Catholic Church became the wholly corrupted

church. :shrug:

[struggle4progress]

5. I think this is the report of a church commission. Telegraph indicates Peter Adriaenssens was chair,

and IIRC he heads the commission for the Roman Catholic church

[defendandprotect]

15. Yes -- and evidently main purpose was to protect the "CHURCH" and the cover up -- !!

But the commission concluded that no evidence of a systematic Church cover-up was found.

Whereas THIS Pope has been involved in covering this up for decades, evidently ---

Guess I should go pull up the info on that, eh??


Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests'by EWAN FLETCHER
Last updated at 22:00 30 September 2006

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.
In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.
The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-407808/Pope-led-cover-child-abuse-priests.html#ixzz0zBHXcIy1


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-407808/Pope-led-cover-child-abuse-priests.html#ixzz0zBHS6IEM

"What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.


The document . . .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs...men_english.pdf


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-407808/Pope-led-cover-child-abuse-priests.html

Some of it overlaps -- but since I can't quote all of the article -- want to be sure everyone

has some way of getting to the info!



Sadly there are a lot of Catholics don't want to face the reality of their own church!!

[Joanne98]

2. It's probably these guys doing it. The Carnival of Binche

Really creepy people.......



There are tons of great festivals and events that take place throughout the year in Belgium, but few can rival the tradition and exuberance of the Carnival of Binche. Every February on the three days leading up to Lent, the town of Binche puts on its world-famous carnival, which is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Binche, like the Belgian cities of Liege and Dinant, is found in the Walloon region of the country, which is predominantly French-speaking. It is a small Medieval town with just over 30,000 residents, but this small town knows how to throw a good carnival. Should you plan to include a stop in Binche during your Belgium vacation, but are unable make it here for the February Carnival, you can always drop by the Museum of Carnival and Mask. Not only will you find exhibits in relation to the Binche Carnival in Belgium, but also ones that relate to other carnivals from around the world.

The Carnival of Binche is without question the most famous carnival in all of Belgium, and while folks from around the world come to experience it, it is exceedingly popular with citizens of nearby France. A Catholic carnival, the Carnival of Binche has its roots in the Christian faith, and it is more or less the last hurrah before the praying and fasting of Lent begin. There is no question that this top carnival in Belgium has quite a history to it, but there are different opinions as to just how far back it goes. While the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are when some historians believe that it began, others say that it must be earlier. This is due to its attachment to Christianity, which had already extended itself throughout most of Europe long before the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Regardless of the year that it was first celebrated, the Catholic Carnival of Binche is old, though the version that is celebrated today has its roots in the nineteenth century. It was in the nineteenth century that the Carnival of Binche really started to become recognized internationally, and it was also when the festive costumes and accessories implemented in today’s carnival were established.

While the Binche Belgium Carnival is at its best on the three days leading up to Lent, it actually starts 49 days before Lent begins. For seven weeks, Sundays include some form of ritualistic dance or ceremony, and these small acts are more for preparation’s sake than anything. It is neat to catch some of the townspeople practicing for their beloved Belgium carnival on the Sundays leading up to the main affair. The three main days of this traditional carnival in Belgium are known as the “fatty days,” and they start on the last Sunday before Lent. At 10 a.m. on this Fat Sunday, the “Mam’selles” parade commences, and it includes a procession of folks dressed in all kinds of outfits. Performers are decked out in traditional costumes, and these costumes can be quite diverse, some pertaining to animals, others depicting a certain character or person. The most important characters of the Binche Catholic Carnival are the Gilles, who are all men and boys. They number somewhere around 1,000, and they all wear a traditional outfit that involves red and black body garments, ostrich-feather hats, and wax masks. Each Gille’s mask has a curled moustache and a signature pair of spectacles.

On Fat Monday, the Gilles dance in the streets of Binche to music that is supplied by barrel organ players. There is a confetti battle on Fat Monday as well, and the highlights also feature the circle of friendship that is formed by members from various youth groups. Monday ends in fireworks, which helps to continue the fanfare, but no day is bigger than Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday is the only day in which the famed Gilles wear their costumes all day long, from sunup to sundown. Many Binche locals begin their Fat Tuesday at 4 a.m., getting up to take part in the early morning collections. The Gilles typically enjoy a traditional oysters and champagne breakfast before hitting the streets to perform for the masses. In addition to the Gilles, harlequins, Pierrots, and peasant characters help to make Fat Tuesday even more special, and you’ll want to pay attention to the fancy footwork that some of the dancers put on. The last procession on Mardi Gras takes place at around 3 p.m., and it is when the Gilles are known to toss oranges to and at crowd members, so keep your eyes peeled. After the last procession, folks generally mill about the town center, enjoying further celebrations. The evening is capped off with the week’s best fireworks show.

http://www.destination360.com/europe/belgium/carnival-of-binche

[RainDog]

12. oh please. they don't have anything on Venice

these festivals with masks, etc. came about because they allowed peasants days off. religion was important for peasants because they didn't have to work on holidays.

[W T F]

3. We need to protest against this.............Let's burn the Bible!

And no Catholic Church should be built near a school yard!
:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[jwirr]

4. Good point about the school yard.

[defendandprotect]

7. The entire RCC might have to register as "sex offenders" soon ....???

Notice that this much of this abuse unocvered takes place in the last decade!!!

Revelations were being made around the world and yet the Vatican didn't stop all of this!!

[defendandprotect]

6. "Priest sex abuse linked to 13 suicides in Belgium" ... and affected children as young as two ---

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100910/ap_on_re_eu/church_abuse_belgium

Professor Peter Adriaenssens, chairman of the commission, said the abuse in Belgium may have been even more rampant than the 200-page report suggests, because his panel's work was interrupted and all its files seized in a June 24 raid by Belgian judicial authorities who are conducting their own probe.

Adriaenssens, a child psychiatrist who has worked with trauma victims for 23 years, said nothing had prepared him for the stories of abuse that blighted the lives of victims. He called the report's findings "a body blow" to the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium.

Friday's report lists 507 witnesses who came forward with stories of molestation at the hands of clergy over the past decades. It says those abused included children who were two, four, five and six years old.

[Iowa]

8. This article is being voted down...

I recommended; it's still zero.

K&R

[RainDog]

11. who ever voted down this article is a sick n/t

[Kelvin Mace]

16. Huh?

I thought you could either recommend or not recommend a post, how do you "vote it down".

[Iowa]

17. Nope...

If I click "recommend", a post with a +4 bumps up to +5. But if I click "unrecommend", a post with a +4 goes DOWN to +3. So if a post is sitting at zero, and I click recommend, it sometimes stays at zero because people unrecommended before me.

[madmom]

9. Shut down the catholic churches that have any involvment with schools until this is

completely investigated to the satisfaction of everyone involved.

[defendandprotect]

14. Agree -- but thing is many of these charges are from last 10 years ... who the heck

has been in charge or who can say they weren't aware in that time --

Revelations have been pouring out of this church for decades now!!!

[alp227]

10. Unfortunately more Americans quickly associate the terms "Muslim" and "terrorist"

than "Catholic" and "pedophile". (I'm talking the general public, and DU doesn't reflect the way most Americans think given the rampant Islamphobia on the highly-rated misinformation wasteland called Fox News.) Americans are so quick to say that "Islam=terrorism" but not "Catholicism=child abuse".

[RainDog]

13. there have been quite a few pedophile scandals associated with Belgium

don't know if it has anything to do with Belgium being the location of NATO or not - lots of people from various govts., etc. Lots of corruption.