Belgium Officials Investigate Death Threats Against Witnesses In Vatican Cases

RedTracker| The BBC reports death threats in Belgium made against witnesses and magistrates involved in the raid of the offices of Belgium’s Catholic bishops two weeks ago and Belgium’s wide-ranging sex-abuse investigation.

Jean Marc Meillure, a spokesman for the public prosecutors office, confirmed that an investigation was under way.

“There are some threats against certain people around the case, and the prosecutors office is investigating that,” he told the BBC.

The NYTimes is running a long article Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal. The most challenging perspective from an even-handed piece that the pope’s supporters willl still find damning is questioning why it took decades for the Catholic Church’s and then Cardinal Ratzinger’s office to clarify that the letter was called “Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela,” Latin for “Safeguarding the Sanctity of the Sacraments” as the document covering all sex abuse cases. 

In an accompanying cover letter, Cardinal Ratzinger, who is said to have been heavily involved in drafting the main document, wrote that the 1922 and 1962 instructions that gave his office authority over sexual abuse by priests cases were “in force until now.” via NYTimes

American bishops are credited in the article as being very aggressive and frustrated with Rome on sex abuse case strategy. At least with the NYT, there’s a growing picture of the last deacde of American bishops being more aggressive in trying to prosecute sex abuse cases and get action on pedophile priests than credited.