Belgian Bishop Vangheluwe dismissed from the clergy

Brussels (KNA) Roger Vangheluwe, Catholic Bishop of Bruges until 2010, is no longer a priest. Pope Francis has expelled him from the clergy, the papal nunciature in Brussels announced on Thursday. The now 87-year-old resigned as diocesan bishop in April 2010 after it became known that he had sexually abused a nephew for years.

Vangheluwe admitted to the offences; in 2011 he confessed to abusing another nephew. And in 2017, a 57-year-old man accused him of having abused him as an altar boy in the early 1970s. – Dismissal from the clergy is the highest punishment provided for clergy under canon law.

According to the statement from the Brussels nunciature, new serious information has been reported to the competent Vatican religious authority in recent months, which has made it necessary to re-examine the case. Vangheluwe himself was also heard again and his statements examined.

Pope Francis had approved the recommended sanction, it was further stated; this was communicated to Vangheluwe on Wednesday (20 March). The dismissed cleric had asked to be allowed to retreat to a place of contemplation without further contact with the outside world. The Belgian bishops had repeatedly called for Vangheluwe to be dismissed from the clergy and expressed their incomprehension at the Vatican’s actions. The government in Brussels also called for a solution.

The Vangheluwe abuse case had major political repercussions in Belgium in 2010. Shortly after his resignation, state abuse investigators stormed church facilities as part of the so-called Operation Chalice and confiscated files, computers and mobile phones from the bishops gathered in Mechelen. The then Archbishop of Brussels Andre Leonard and his predecessor Cardinal Godfried Danneels had to testify before a parliamentary committee of enquiry. Cardinal Danneels’ reputation also suffered lasting damage, as a tape recording emerged that suggested a planned cover-up of the Vangheluwe case.