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Belgian Police Search of Cathedral and Church Offices Condemned

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday, according to Zenit, Pope Benedict XVI in a letter to Belgian Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard condemned the methods used last Thursday by Belgian police in searching the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Malines-Brussels in a sexual abuse investigation. As described by Zenit:

The police arrived at 10:30 Thursday morning to the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Malines-Brussels, where the bishops of Belgium were meeting for their monthly meeting. The authorities detained the bishops at the headquarters for nine hours as they searched the offices and the Cathedral of Malines.

At that time they drilled holes in the two graves of cardinals Jozef Ernest Van Roey and Leon Joseph Suenens, deceased archbishops of Malines-Brussels, located in the crypt of the cathedral, and then sent cameras down in search of hidden documents.

In addition to the headquarters of the archbishopric of Brussels, the authorities seized some 500 confidential files In Leuven, Belgium, from the office of Peter Adriaensses, president of the commission for the treatment of sexual abuses. The home of former archbishop of Malines-Brussels, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, was also searched.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on June 28, 2010 (boomark / email).