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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Belgian Catholic Church Sex Abuse: We Feared Compensation Claims


Guy Harpigny, the bishop of Tournai and the senior cleric responsible for rooting out sex abusers within the Belgian church's ranks, has further inflamed outrage by confessing that financial concerns over litigation stopped an official apology.

"We did not dare. If you officially apologise, then you are acknowledging moral and legal responsibility. Then there are people who ask for money and we don't know what lawyers and the courts will do about that," he said.

There has been widespread anger that Belgium's bishops have failed to apologise and begged for more time to deal with an independent report that uncovered sex abuse committed by at least 91 priests, other clergy or church workers in every congregation in Belgium, taking place over four decades.'

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1 comment:

  1. With so many reports of child sex abuse one wonders if the modern catholic church is infact a child sex abusers club that uses religion as a convenient cover to gain access to unsuspecting children. If it was any other organisation indulging in such widespread abuse it would have been hauled to the courts and disbanded.

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