Belgium: the bishops’ reply to the pressIn a statement released July 7, the Belgium episcopate (CEB) replied to the news report published July 6 by the Belgian daily “Het Laatste Nieuws” which commenting on the police search at the archbishopric in Malines past June 24 claimed that Brussels’ prosecutor had found documents that were destined only for civil courts and not for the Church, consisting in magistrates’ documents and judicial reports on the ‘monster of Marcinelle’ Marc Dutroux. The Episcopal Conference’s lawyer, Fernand Keuleneer, “contacted judicial authorities with specific questions: was the information contained in the article leaked by persons directly involved in the case? And if the answer is ‘yes’, why was it made public? Does it correspond to the truth? If so, were the mentioned documents found in the archives? In this case do you know the owner of the documents and how they were uncovered from archives?” A reply arrived July 7: “the documents on the Dutroux file, consist in a DVD, copies of which had been circulating in the newsrooms for some time”. The bishops continue in their statement: “It would be really unfortunate that ‘information,’ falling under professional and investigative secret has been voluntarily disclosed to the press by people involved in the investigation, with the aim only of creating sensationalism. “This does not contribute to the serenity of the investigation”. The Belgian bishops said they “wish to cooperate properly with the justice system” and “to contribute by answering questions from investigators, rather than reacting to press reports”. According to the daily “De Morgen”, in 2004 a satirical English newspaper with offices in Brussels called The Sprout had sent out the CDs to the Belgian Church. The CDs were thus stacked in the cellars where they were found by the judiciary. The Netherlands: collaborating with justice”Close cooperation with judicial authorities in The Netherlands”, declared on its website the Deetman Commission, the independent group of experts – chaired by the Protestant ex- mayor of The Hague Wim Deetman – set up by the Dutch Bishops’ Conference to investigate on alleged sexual abuses in religious institutions in The Netherlands since 1945. A few days ago the Commission’s official website published a statement underlining the close cooperation with the Country’s judicial authorities so that suspicious cases may be directly communicated to the judicial authority. It was decided that judicial authorities in The Netherlands be informed if the Commission’s work uncovers indictable evidence. The statement posted on the website stresses that in case of “minimum doubt” the Commission will submit the evidence to the judicial authority for authentication, informing the victims if the documents are retained indictable. However, the statement points out that the Commission had undertaken such agreements with the judiciary already past spring. The judiciary is called to encourage the victims to file complaints, “and if they decide they don’t want to go to court, the Commission pledges to ask religious authorities to take the necessary measures against the culprits of sexual abuses so they may be prosecuted”.Ireland: saints needed The Saint Oliver Plunkett Festival (www.saintoliverplunkett.com) took place July 1-4 in Drohgeda, which coincided with the 90th year of the beatification of the Catholic martyr “killed 429 years ago since he was considered a traitor of the State”, said Msgr. Donal McKeown, auxiliary bishop of Down and Connor, in the homily of the Mass in St. Peter’s Church, where the Saint’s relics are preserved. Some people, he noted, “are trying to understand if such commemoration after so many years has a meaning for the church”, others “are wondering whether it’s appropriate to continue speaking of a man who was killed for being a Catholic leader in a divided country”. “Oliver Plunkett like all of us was a man of his times”, and “struggled with the questions of those times”. “Today – underlined the prelate referring to priests’ abuses on minors – the Church of Ireland operates in painful circumstances”, but “the pain for our embarrassment and shame is nothing compared to the reality of so many lives permanently scarred by the suffering that was inflicted upon them”. Also for other reasons, “this is a very difficult moment”, he added, “10% of children live in a state of poverty” and the Country registers “the highest number of suicides among the youth in Europe”. “It’s a moment of crisis not only for Catholicism. It affects the Western society as a whole”. “Ireland – is the prelate’s conclusion – needs saints and needs people who will listen to the Call to generosity and sacrifice”.
