Abusers among candidates for presbyteral council
Several of the candidates on the list for election to the presbyteral council that advises the Belgian primate Archbishop Luc Terlinden are known sex abusers. The news appears in articles published in Wednesday’s editions of the dailies ‘De Standaard”, ‘Het Nieuwsblad’ and ‘Gazet van Antwerpen’. The clergyman that set up the Human Rights in the Church Working Party, Father Rik Devillé, says that there are three known abusers on the list of candidates that are over 75.
Father Devillé told journalists that "I could not believe it when I saw the list of candidates included three men that are known to have abused minors. One of them has been brought to justice, for the two others an out-of-court settlement was reached. The most recent out-of-court settlement was concluded just a week ago. It’s shameful".
Archbishop Terlinden’s spokesman Geert De Kerpel told journalists that "If this is true, it is a serious, structural error". Mr De Kerpel cannot confirm whether there are abusers on the list. However, he does not bring into question Father Devillé's claims.
The electoral lists for the presbyteral council must be confirmed by mid-May. It won’t be until then that it will be 100% certain who is standing. Geert De Kerpel says that if a known abuser were to be elected Archbishop Terlinden would refuse their appointment to the council.
Priests don’t know in advance that they are candidates
Speaking on VRT Radio 1’s morning news and current affairs programme ‘De Ochtend’ Mr De Kerpel explained that the lists for election to the Presbyteral Council are drafted automatically and that it is not the priests themselves that put their names forward. He added that those that drafted the lists wouldn’t necessary have known that they had included abusers. He added that this however is no excuse. “This was a serious structural mistake; a go-between should have checked the names and scrapped these people from the list”.
"Archbishop Terlinden apologises for this. We need to address and remedy this fundamentally and structurally."