BELGIUM
West
by Ivano Abbadessa
After the child sex abuse scandals in Belgium, the Catholic Church has taken a zero-tolerance line on paedophilia, which was recently reiterated by Pope Francis. Atonement, compensation and prevention are the guidelines of this new strategy that, according to the data, appears to be working. According to the report from the Belgian inter-diocesan Commission, 621 victims have reported the abuse to the Centre of Arbitration, which was active until 31 October 2012. A further 323 reports have been received in the past two years at 10 ‘contact points’, operational since January 2012, which the Catholic Church set up in the provinces of Belgium. Although 8% of these reports have not yet been fully processed, 125 victims of abuse by priests have already received financial compensation totalling about €1m. The document shows that 92% of victims were under 18 at the time of the abuse and 25% were under 10.
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