No doubt many felt shocked when reports of the raid on the Brussels-Mechelen archdiocesan offices made the news a couple of weeks ago. Many of us will have been stunned to silence, not sure what to think. Now we can: the raid was illegal.
Will this judgement receive as much publicity as the illegal raids including the desecration of a grave of a former archbishop did?
See Catholic News Agency for more details.
Tweet
I think there will be significant attention, Father, since there is much more going on that the actual illegality of the raid. The magistrate responsible for calling the raid has forbidden the Public Prosecutor to publish the results of the investigation, thus keeping the victims and the media in the dark. One of their lawyers has already gone to the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg to enforce publication.
ReplyDeleteThe verdict that the raid is illegal means that much evidence (if any has been found, because we don't know anything) can not be used in court, but the fact remains that the efforts that the Church in Belgium had been undertaking to weed out abuse and aid the victims has now been taken over completely by the courts. And no one knows what they'll do. For the majority of victims who have come forward it constitutes a serious breach of trust. Trust they had given to the Church, after many years of suffering.