Pope faces protests on visit to Britain, Belgian Catholic clergy abuse report

Shanley clergy abuse recovered memory case
http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/shanley-recovered-memory-case/

Pope faces protests and apathy on visit to Britain - Survey reveals that 77% of people questioned felt taxpayer should not contribute to cost of pontiff's trip - Sam Jones, Riazat Butt, Stephen Bates and Kaamil Ahmed 10 September 2010 When Benedict XVI lands at Edinburgh airport on Thursday, he is unlikely to get the rapturous reception that greeted John Paul II on his visit to Britain in 1982.
Over the coming days, the pope will be faced with protesters demanding action on clerical sexual abuse of children and voicing anger at the £20m cost of the state visit, and must also contend with public apathy.
A recent survey revealed 77% of people questioned felt the taxpayer should not contribute to the cost of the visit, with 79% saying they had "no personal interest" in the pontifical trip.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/10/pope-faces-protests-british-visits


Church abuse in Belgium detailed by Adriaenssens report Harrowing details of alleged sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic clergy in Belgium have been released by an official Church investigator.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11260290

Belgian child abuse report exposes Catholic clergy - Paedophilia expert unveils harrowing testimony and documents cases in almost every diocese Ian Traynor in Brussels guardian.co.uk, Friday 10 September 2010 Some of the most damning evidence of systematic child abuse by the Roman Catholic clergy to come to light was unveiled today by Belgium's leading authority on paedophilia, who published hundreds of pages of harrowing victim testimony detailing their traumas and suffering.
The explosive report by Peter Adriaenssens in the town of Louvain, east of Brussels, lists evidence of 476 instances of child abuse by priests and bishops going back 50 years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/10/belgium-child-abuse-catholic-church

describes abuse
Priest sex abuse linked to 13 suicides in Belgium Virginia Mayo / AP File Friday, Sept. 10, 2010 BRUSSELS — Hundreds of sex abuse victims have come forward in Belgium with harrowing accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy that reportedly led to at least 13 suicides and affected children as young as two, a special commission said Friday....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.
"We don't just talk about touching. We are talking about oral and anal abuse, forced masturbation and mutual masturbation. We talk about people who have gone through serious abuse," Adriaenssens said. Most of the abuse happened during the 1960s and 1970s, he said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39093978

Belgian cardinal offered to hush up sex case, Belgian sex abuse tapes

Shanley clergy abuse recovered memory case
http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/shanley-recovered-memory-case/


Belgian cardinal offered to hush up sex case (AP) – 8/28/10
BRUSSELS — Roman Catholic Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium offered to keep a sexual molestation case against a bishop secret until the bishop retired, an official said Saturday. Toon Osaer, Danneels' spokesman, confirmed a report in Saturday's De Standaard newspaper about a secretly taped meeting that Danneels held on April 8 with Belgian Bishop Roger Vangheluwe and the bishop's sexual abuse victim.

Osaer told the VRT television and radio network that Danneels told the victim the case against Vangheluwe could be kept quiet until the bishop retired as scheduled a year later. In the end, Vangheluwe resigned two weeks after the meeting, expressing sorrow for having abused the victim as a youngster for years, both while serving as a priest and a bishop. Danneels retired as head of the Belgian Catholic church in January. But police later questioned him as a potential witness in the case and raided his home and office, confiscating documents and a personal computer. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jELcVrb_-jrRarOc1Ps2E7AmKY8wD9HSJ4FG0


Belgian sex abuse tapes amplify Catholic scandals Sun Aug 29, 2010
PARIS (Reuters) - Leaked tapes of Belgium's Cardinal Godfried Danneels urging a victim not to reveal he was sexually abused by a bishop are some of the most damaging documents to emerge in the scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church.
The tapes, made secretly by the victim and published in two Belgian newspapers on Saturday, show the former primate of Belgium exhorting him to accept a private apology or wait one year until the bishop retired before making his case public.

Their meeting took place on April 8, at a time when the Vatican was under fire for allegedly covering up similar abuse cases by priests in other countries and shocking abuse claims dominated the news in several European states.

A spokesman for Danneels denied the once popular archbishop of Brussels wanted to cover up the case, which led to the sudden resignation of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, 73, later that month, but the tapes show him arguing firmly for silence.
Belgian Church spokesman Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed to Reuters that the transcripts in the Flemish dailies De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad were genuine.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67S11920100829

Polanski free, Church accepts liability for sex abuse, Belgian Clergy Inquiry

Polanski free after Swiss reject extradition
By Hui Min Neo (AFP) 7/12/10 GENEVA — Swiss authorities said that Roman Polanski was a free man Monday after rejecting a request to extradite the film director to the United States to answer for a child sex case dating back to 1977. "The Franco-Polish film-maker will not be extradited to the United States and the measures of restriction on his liberty have been lifted," Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told reporters at a press conference.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jCGJhS900g2cGdXBg_7ZYhZVP9qg

describes crimes
Dominic Lawson: Let's not forget what Polanski did
The film director has been treated with extraordinary indulgence
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
A man who drugged and sodomised a 13-year old girl would not usually receive the uncritical support of the political and literary establishments.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-lets-not-forget-what-polanski-did-1794717.html

Church accepts liability for sex abuse LISA MARTIN AND ANGELA HARPER July 12, 2010
AAP The Catholic Church is being praised for its readiness to avoid a court battle over the rape and sexual abuse of young girls at a Queensland primary school. A former teacher, 61, has admitted to a series of sexual abuse charges involving 13 girls in classes he taught between January 2007 and September 2008. Lawyers for some of the victims say Toowoomba Bishop William Morris has formally accepted legal liability for the abuse and the church will enter into mediation with the victims.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/church-accepts-liability-for-sex-abuse-20100712-106zr.html


Abuse Took Years to Ignite Belgian Clergy Inquiry By DOREEN CARVAJAL and STEPHEN CASTLE
July 12, 2010 WESTVLETEREN, Belgium — Behind an aggressive investigation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belgium that drew condemnation from the pope himself lies a stark family tragedy: the molestation, for years, of a youth by his uncle, the bishop of Bruges; the prelate’s abrupt resignation when a friend of the nephew finally threatened to make the abuse public; and now the grass-roots fury of almost 500 people complaining of abuse by priests....A public pledge by Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Brussels that the Bruges resignation marked an end to cover-ups prompted more than 500 people — mostly men — to come forward in just two months.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/world/europe/13belgium.html