GHENT, Belgium – Belgians molested by Catholic priests will go ahead with legal proceedings against the Vatican for damages despite an offer by local bishops to compensate them, their lawyers said on Wednesday.
Pope Benedict enjoys diplomatic immunity but other Vatican officials and Belgian bishops will be summoned to testify in the case, lawyer Walter van Steenbrugge said.
Christine Mussche, another lawyer for about 70 victims, said the Vatican failed to intervene even when it learned about the scandals in the Belgian church.
More than 500 cases of alleged abuse have been registered in the past year. “There were instructions from the Pope that said those things had to be kept secret and silent,” she said, adding that the church could be guilty of harmful neglect under Belgian law.
The Belgian bishops’ conference said on Monday it would set up a commission to compensate victims molested so long ago that their cases cannot be prosecuted. Some reported cases go back several decades. “As long as there are no concrete results from the arbitrage commission, the victims will continue the procedure,” Ms Mussche told a news conference.
The Belgian lawyers appeared to be taking a page from the legal strategy of attorneys representing clerical abuse victims in the United States, where several such suits have been filed. In one case concerning a priest in Milwaukee, the summons was served in April through US diplomatic channels after the Vatican refused to accept them when sent by a courier service. Another case was filed in Chicago last month. – (Reuters)