A lawyer is bidding to haul the Vatican before a Belgian civil court
on charges of "culpable negligence," seeking damages for dozens of
victims of a decades-long priest child sex scandal.
Walter Van Steenbrugge told Belgium's Le Soir newspaper that a
"summons to appear before the court will be ready this weekend,"
targeting "the Holy See and several physical persons," representing the
Belgian Roman Catholic Church.
The Belgian Catholic Church was last year rocked by revelations of
nearly 500 cases of abuse by priests since the 1950s, including 13 known
suicides among victims.
Pope Benedict XVI however denounced police raids that saw truckloads
of evidence seized from the bowels of the Belgian church's headquarters,
and the church hierarchy fought a legal battle to prevent prosecutors
from using the material.
The scandal resurfaced this month when Roger Vangheluwe, whose
resignation as bishop of Bruges opened the floodgates to victims'
testimony, told Belgian television that he abused one nephew for 13
years and another for nearly 12 months.
Vangheluwe's interview shocked believers worldwide and left the Vatican "stupefied," days after it had placed him in exile.
Van Steenbrugge said the case he wants brought before a Belgian civil
judge is based on the Vatican and the Belgian church's "civil
responsability, having analysed their attitude towards sexual abuse, as
much at the time when the abuses were committed as today."
The lawyer said Pope Benedict XVI "is supposed to set an example... it's time he did just that."
The summons being prepared is based on "recent declarations by
Ratzinger," a reference to the German pope's name prior to becoming
pontiff, Joseph Ratzinger, and by the head of the Belgian Catholic
church, Andre-Joseph Leonard.
Van Steenbrugge said they "make out they are fighting sexual abuse,
but they are doing quite the opposite -- protecting abusers, hailing
their protectors, excommunicating those who denounce the facts."
After the press descended on a French monastic retreat where
Vangheluwe was ordered to undergo spiritual reflection, the former
bishop left the abbey and his subsequent whereabouts have not been
revealed.