Roger Vangheluwe, 87, former bishop of Bruges, was dismissed from the clergy of the Catholic Church by the Vatican, the Apostolic Nunciature, the embassy of the Holy See in Belgium, announced on Thursday March 21. Forced to resign in 2010, after the revelation of the rapes he had committed over thirteen years on one of his nephews, then a minor, the prelate then confessed to other rapes, committed on his other nephew over two years. Facts prescribed in the eyes of justice and which the person concerned had constantly minimized, presenting them as “a little relationship”namely consented.
Until now, the Vatican had ruled that the bishop was prohibited from exercising his ministry and uttering any public words. He was supposed to undergo therapy and “spiritual accompaniment”. “After the first canonical sanctions pronounced, he could no longer reside in Belgium and was only entitled to a few annual visits to his country. He was in fact sidelined,” explains a Roman source.
“In recent months, new serious elements concerning the case of (…) Roger Vangheluwe were reported to the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, which required a re-examination of the case », explained the press release released Thursday by the Nunciature. The proposal to dismiss the bishop from his clerical state was presented to Pope Francis on March 8. He endorsed the decision on the 11th. Informed nine days later, Mr. Vangheluwe asked to be able to reside in a place of retirement, without any contact with the outside world. The statement concluded that the pope “ reiterates its closeness to the victims of abuse and its commitment so that this scourge is eradicated from the Church”.
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Pressure on the bishop and the Vatican increased in 2023, notably following the broadcast of a television series entitled Godvergeten (“The Forgotten by God”), which included the moving testimony of one of Mr. Vangheluwe’s nephews. The victims of priests then re-mobilized and a new parliamentary commission of inquiry devoted to sexual abuse in the Belgian Church was set up.
The government of Alexander De Croo, for its part, supported a request aimed at depriving Roger Vangheluwe of the titles which had given him the right to a salary, then to a pension paid by the Belgian state. The subject had clearly become problematic between the Holy See on the one hand, and the Belgian authorities and bishops on the other.
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