Former bishop Roger Vangheluwe in Bruges on November 7, 2006. Edwin Fontaine/Reuters)/CNN
A defrocked Belgian bishop whose admission of child sexual abuse triggered a national reckoning on the scale of paedophile crimes in the Catholic Church, has died, authorities said Friday.
The Belgian Bishops’ Conference announced Roger Vangheluwe’s death at the age of 89, saying it was “aware this news may trigger a new wave of emotion among victims.”
The former bishop of Bruges resigned in 2010 after acknowledging he had sexually abused two nephews — one of them over a 13-year period from the 1980s onward.
He was not prosecuted due to Belgium’s statute of limitations but his case prompted thousands to come forward with accounts of sexual violence in the Church spanning decades. Related News Vatican rift deepens as breakaway Catholic group defies Pope, ordains bishops ‘New Tower of Babel’: Inside Pope Leo’s encyclical on AI Outrage trails arrest, release of US-based Nigerian nun
