"It is impossible that Cardinal Danneels knows nothing about my son's abuse"

Het Nieuwsblad - 'Het kan niet dat Danneels van niets wist'

"Danneels sat opposite me, was bored listening to my story bored, turned his eyes away and sighed. I feel like I'm sitting in the dock, he said. And now he knows nothing? Surely that is impossible. "

The words of Marie-Josée Dhem from Sint-Pieters-Woluwe. Her son was abused when between 12 and 14 in the eighties was at abused by a Salesian at the college where he attended school.

Dhem began in January 2000 with a score of other victims and Father Rik Deville attended a confrontation with Cardinal Danneels, then Archbishop . "Danneels wondered aloud as to whether we are not exaggerating. I understand that. I received a letter from him in 2008. But that was a vague letter. And I have written many in the past thirty years. "

The priest who abused her son was seen by colleagues as 'totally honest' and the son of Marie-Josée got expelled because of his "lies." "I saw that the leading ecclesiastic did not believe me, but later, the priest admitted to everything during a confrontation with my son."

Sudden memory loss

Dhem is not the only one who has doubts about the statements of Danneels. "My wife and I were also present on that fateful night," said another victim of our newspaper. "It seems that several senior clerics suffer amnesia when it comes to sexual abuse."

"We even sent Danneels a letter, but now suddenly he knows of nothing? Too bad he cannot find it, then. "

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