It’s a very good thing the Belgian police did; one that does need to be repeated a lot of places. If the civil authorities are serious about enforcing the laws they need to look where the criminals are and where they are employed and protected from the law, like those police did.

A whole bunch of dramatics that will go nowhere.
If this was to happen it should have happened 35 years ago.
Now too late to mean anything.

In this case, at least, better late than never.

Just the Belgian prosecutors office covering their asses after the Dutroux case. They want to make sure that the Bruges Bishop’s case doesn’t come back to bite them. They have reason to be cautious. Belgium has more pedophiles per square inch than any other European country and not just among clerics of all stripes. Must be something to do with the Pomme Frites. Although I doubt that they would have found any hanky panky going on in those two crypts they defaced.

Heard on News Hour (BBC news) that Benny is a little upset by this raid. Didn’t like the way it was carried out. Guess what, Benny? NO one cares! The RCC isn’t out of payment for the hell it put hundreds of children through yet. More and more cases are being uncovered.

Lot’s of people care pagan.

If there’s probable cause (or whatever the local law requires), one abode or business place should be as subject to search as another. Part of the problem has been that the RCC was considered beyond the law.
What is the ground for PB’s (or Robert’s) complaint?

If you did your homework rather that blather away you would find that in Belgium the priests and hierarchy of the church are official employees of the state. They are paid by Belgium per Napoleonic code and the concordats of Pius VII.

RobertC: I expect those that care are the priests who are about to be found out! Off to the clink with them!

Robert I admit I didn’t know till quite recently the indecent relationship between the Belgian state and the RCC, which you brought up (thank you). But what does that have to do with being upset when the police investigate believable reports of crimes by looking where the evidence may have accumulated?

“Peter Adriaenssens, one of Belgium’s top child abuse experts, whose office has received hundreds of complaints this year and who has threatened to resign should his work be impeded by the church hierarchy. He emerged as a national figure following the notorious Marc Dutroux paedophilia and murder case in 1996 and runs one of the country’s most respected child abuse centres.”
He voiced outrage and shock at the police actions, saying he had been given no warning, and would now struggle to deliver a report on clerical sexual abuse he was preparing for October”
Does the fact that the Church had set up an independent counsel to examine abuse allegations, and that only 1 out of 5 of those who had submitted confidential information to the counsel wanted to contact police (and whose trust was therefore violated by the police [not, in this case, the Church]) have any bearing on this discussion? If SNAP wants action on the part of the Church, why are they applauding government intervention that prevented that action?

Because for all intents and purposes, SNAP is a semi-terrorist organization.

I suppose if one accepts the relationship between the Belgian state and the church, established through legal concordat, then one also should accept the fundementals of the Belgian legal system, which leaves a lot to be desired. A cursory glance at how a culturally divided nation operates administratively should give some hints. There is no real judicial supervision of prosecutors offices in each of the independant districts. They therefore can act independantly. from 1st hand experience I can tell you that they are not operating under our understanding of due process. Fine to investigate crimes and pursue evidence but do so within the bounds of some sensible due process.