RNSdigest_09_01

RNS Digest
©2010 Religion News Service

Ex-leader of Belgian Catholics urged victim to keep silent

By Francis X. Rocca

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Secret audio recordings show the former head of the Belgian Catholic Church asking a sex abuse victim not to expose the crimes of his assailant, a bishop who was the victim’s uncle.
The tapes, whose contents were published in Belgian newspapers on Aug.28, were recorded in April of this year.

They show Cardinal Godfried Danneels urging a 42-year-old victim to remain silent about the years of sex abuse he suffered as a child and adolescent at the hands of Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges — at least until after Vangheluwe’s expected retirement the following year.
“The bishop will resign next year, so actually it would be better for you to wait,” says Danneels, who retired in January as the archbishop of Brussels. “I don’t think you’d do yourself or him a favour by shouting this from the rooftops.”

When the cardinal beseeches the victim not to drag the bishop’s “name through the mud,” the victim’s response is unsympathetic.

“He has dragged my whole life through the mud, from five until 18 years old,” the victim tells Danneels. “Why do you feel so sorry for him and not for me?”

In the second of two tapes, made after Vangheluwe himself joins the meeting, the victim tells his uncle: “This is unsolvable. You’ve torn our family completely apart.”

Church spokesmen have confirmed the authenticity of the recordings, and said that Danneels regrets his “naive” decision to act as a mediator between victim and abuser, even though he was no longer the head of the Belgian church.

Vangheluwe resigned two weeks after the meeting, admitting to molestation of “a boy in my entourage” two decades earlier.

Two months later, Belgian police raided the home of Danneels’ successor, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, and the offices of a church-backed commission investigating clerical abuse. Bishops attending a conference were detained for nine hours, and the tomb of an archbishop was opened and searched.

According to church lawyers, a Belgian court has since ruled the June 24 raids illegal, and the documents obtained then to be inadmissible in any judicial proceedings, but the official status of the investigation remains uncertain.

New Orleans marks Katrina anniversary with grief, hope

By Bruce Nolan / The Times-Picayune

(RNS) — With a light rain falling, hundreds of New Orleanians gathered at St. Louis Cathedral on Aug. 29 afternoon to remember Hurricane Katrina in “grief, gratitude and hope,” in the words of New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

A 45-minute ceremony in the cathedral on Jackson Square attracted clergy and members of eight world religions in New Orleans, each offering a short prayer from his or her own tradition.

In various ways, participants mourned the loss of nearly 1,500 New Orleanians five years ago today.

They also expressed gratitude for the kindness of strangers and volunteers, and prayed together for a better future.

“Suffering is the crucible of greatness,” said Bishop Michael Rinehart, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod.

Rinehart drew a chuckle when he began his message by quoting from “the gospel of Brees,” holding aloft the memoir of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees in which Brees describes the fear and uncertainty that followed the shoulder injury that threatened his football career.

But as Brees found and as New Orleans finds today, after suffering comes rebirth, and in rebirth comes greatness, Rinehart said.

“We will never be the same again,” he said.

“Thank God, we will never be the same again.”

Seton Hall to proceed with class on gay marriage

By Jeff Diamant and Kelly Heyboer / The Star-Ledger

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (RNS) — It appears Seton Hall University will offer a controversial course on gay marriage over the objections of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, according to the professor scheduled to teach the class.

The undergraduate seminar course — called The Politics of Gay Marriage — was to begin Aug. 31 with about two dozen students, said W. King Mott, an associate professor of political science.

“The class is happening. I’ve never heard that it wasn’t,” said Mott, who has sent the syllabus to the enrolled students.

Last spring, Myers said he was troubled the Catholic university was offering a class that “seeks to promote as legitimate a train of thought that is contrary to what the church teaches.” Myers, who serves as a member of the Seton Hall Board of Regents, called on the university to reconsider offering the class.

In June, a dozen members of the board of regents’ Mission and Identity Committee began meeting behind closed doors to evaluate the course and make a recommendation. The showdown between the university’s academic and religious sides drew national attention from gay rights, education and Catholic groups.

University spokesperson Thomas White refused to confirm or deny the class will go on as scheduled.

However, the course appears in Seton Hall’s online schedule of classes and has been assigned a meeting time and a room. The website also lists several texts students are required to purchase for the class, including What’s Love Got To Do With It?: The Case for Same-Sex Marriage.

James Goodness, a spokesperson for the Newark archbishop, said he had not heard of any final decision on the class. But Myers continues to believe the gay marriage course is “not in sync with Catholic teaching,” Goodness said.

The syllabus for the class says the course will focus on gay marriage as a contemporary political idea and may bring guest speakers to campus to share their personal stories.

“This point of view does not dismiss those that hold a religious belief; all perspectives are welcome in this discussion,” the syllabus says.

Mott, one of the few openly gay professors at Seton Hall, came up with the idea for the elective class for upperclassmen. He said students will explore the social and political issues surrounding the gay marriage debate without advocating for either side.

“This is a considerable public policy question and there’s opposition,” Mott said. “But I would hope that at a university there would be understanding that there’s always going to be some opposition.”