Benedictine monastery community once in the vanguard of modern liturgical reform evaporates in sexual scandal
The small Benedictine order that still resides in the Keizersberg Abbey (also known as Mont Cesar) in Leuven is being temporarily dissolved with immediate effect. This was reported by VRT NWS.
The intervention is a result of complaints about inappropriate behavior. Four monks are still residing in the abbey in a separate wing of the building. The largest part of the abbey is used by independent entrepreneurs, artists and associations. A number of students are also staying there.
Complaints to the reporting center for sexual violence in the church are always assessed by the federal public prosecutor's office, which then forwards them, if serious, to the territorially competent public prosecutor's office. According to VRT NWS, the Leuven public prosecutor's office has confirmed that this procedure is currently being followed.
In the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, swift action has already been taken. The four monks must move to other monastic communities with immediate effect. That is why the small order is being dissolved, at least temporarily.
The Keizersberg Abbey is owned by the Benedictine monks. In 2011, the city council of Leuven took the Keizersberg park on a long lease and opened it to the public. In the autumn of 2022, the restoration of the castle wall, the 36-metre deep well and the statue of the Virgin Mary will begin.
Abdij Keizersberg vzw and Labora cv want to breathe new life into the abbey with a future-oriented approach that is in line with Benedictine values. They therefore developed a vision for the future in which an integrated management plan for both the park and the abbey buildings must be developed. This led to a structural collaboration for the entire site at the beginning of 2023 between abbey Keizersberg vzw and Labora cv on the one hand and the city of Leuven as a third partner.
The restoration of the roofs of the east, south and north wings of the abbey is currently underway. This restoration is crucial to preserve the monument and to give the various rooms in the abbey a new purpose. The new functions were to complement the abbey community and build on the values of abbey life. Current events, if effectively confirmed, give this ambition a somewhat sour taste.
Background November 2024 – Well-known Benedictine and liturgical scholar Thomas Quartier is accused of abusing a novice. This is evident from documents obtained by Nederlands Dagblad (ND), the newspaper wrote yesterday about the matter.
Brother Quartier, born in Germany in 1972 and named Theologian of the Fatherland three years ago, joined the Benedictines of the Sint-Willibrordsabdij in Doetinchem in 2012. In April 2020, he made his eternal profession there and moved to Keizersberg Abbey in Leuven five months later.
No suspect in Leuven
A few days ago it was announced that the public prosecutor in Belgium is conducting a criminal investigation into complaints about inappropriate behavior by one or two members of the small monastic community, which has only four members, including Thomas Quartier. It was also announced that the Benedictine authorities have temporarily dissolved the community in Leuven. The public prosecutor's office in Leuven indicated today, when asked, that Quartier is not a suspect in this case.
According to documents that the ND has seen, Quartier is accused of abuse and transgressive behavior towards a 29-year-old man who entered the Sint-Willibrordsabdij as a novice in November 2018. He was also a former student of Quartier at Radboud University in Nijmegen.
Brother Quartier is said to have wanted an "exclusive, unconditional relationship of trust" with the nineteen-year-old novice, in which, according to the documents, there should also be room for physicality and eroticism, writes the ND.
Role of abbot
The abbot of the Sint-Willibrordsabdij is Henry Vesseur. According to the ND, he speaks in the relevant documents of "abuse of power, emotional abuse and also psychological abuse" by brother Quartier, in which "moral, psychological, emotional and also sexual boundaries were violated". The abbot further states that Quartier “deliberately created circumstances” “in which sexual contact seemed unavoidable”. The novice refused this and Quartier then allegedly wanted to impose himself. The novice then complained to the abbot, but he decided to wait two months before confronting Quartier with the accusations in April 2020. In the meantime, the man was no longer a novice because he no longer wanted to become a monk in Doetinchem.
The ND writes that Quartier confessed to Abbot Vesseur that he had made the wrong choices and “will never do it again”. He is said to have added that he did not regret having helped the novice “through his friendship”.
The daily newspaper De Gelderlander is in possession of a long letter from the novice. It shows that he and Quartier had a special friendship in which the latter was the dominant factor. He is said to have put pressure on the younger man to sign a document with a kind of marriage vow. There would have been no question of a sexual relationship, but according to the former novice, Quartier hinted at it.
Not hindering academic career
The fact that Abbot Vesseur waited two months before taking action is remarkable because the rules that apply in the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands prescribe that accusations must be reported immediately to the Roman Catholic Reporting Center for Transgressive Behavior. The ND writes that Vesseur himself said he did not do this because he wanted to prevent an official investigation from ending Brother Quartier's academic career. After all, he had been appointed professor of Comparative Religious Studies at Radboud University that same week in 2020.
When Quartier moved to Leuven in September 2020, according to the Benedictines, it was to strengthen the community of Keizersberg. The Willibrord Abbey seconded Quartier to the Leuven abbey for an indefinite period, also because of his assignment as liturgy professor at KU Leuven. He continued to fulfill his teaching assignment in Nijmegen, which would enable him to contribute to strengthening the bond between the theology program and that of religious studies at both universities.
But as the ND now shows, the secondment to Keizersberg Abbey had a completely different reason. It was a transfer to, as Abbot Vesseur indicated, “give Thomas the opportunity to work on his own psyche in another place”. According to Vesseur, this was an “elegant solution that would prevent as much loss of face as possible for all involved and limit damage to reputation”.
Ordination did not go ahead
Once in Leuven, Brother Quartier indicated that he wanted to become a priest, in other words, receive priestly ordination. Prior Dirk Hanssens of the small community of Keizersberg was aware of the report of transgressive behavior. According to the documents, Quartier also behaved “narcissistically” and “manipulatively” within the Leuven abbey community. Nevertheless, the prior allowed Quartier to become a deacon. In private, he was ordained as a deacon by Bishop Lode Van Hecke of Ghent on February 2, 2023. Five months later, Quartier would have received priestly ordination if the Vatican had not put a stop to it. The Apostolic See had gotten wind of the accusations against Quartier. In January 2024, the Dicastery for Religious wrote to the Leuven prior, according to the ND: “Similar abuse by Brother Thomas Quartier will probably occur again in the future, given his personality disorder.”
Abbot-President's decision on Keizersberg
The Order of Saint Benedict is not centrally governed. It is a confederation of so-called congregations, which in turn consist of various provinces. Both the Willibrord Abbey and Keizersberg belong to the Flemish-Dutch province of the Congregation of Subiaco-Cassino. Since September of this year, the Catalan monk Ignasi Fossas i Collet of the Abbey of Montserrat has been in charge of the eight provinces of this congregation, who bears the title of abbot-president. He resides in the Abbey of Sant'Ambrogio in Rome, where the curia of the congregation is located. This Fossas recently came to Leuven to restore order after he became aware of transgressive behavior. He then decided to temporarily dissolve the community, which means, among other things, that the four monks must be housed in other monasteries. The immediate cause of the dissolution is a report of assault on a postulant by another monk and of toxic leadership by the prior.
Response from Quartier
The ND spoke to Thomas Quartier himself, who claims that his departure from the Sint-Willibrordsabdij was the result of “a clash of characters”. According to the newspaper, he “strongly” denies that there was any question of transgressive behaviour. “No complaint has ever been filed and no punishment has ever been imposed.” He also finds it “reprehensible that texts that were created within a context at the time and were intended for internal use are now being taken out of context”. Quartier also tells the ND that his ordination as a priest has not been cancelled but postponed “to allow for further investigation”. He also points out that during a recent visit to the abbey, abbot president Fossas is said to have withdrawn the earlier decree sent by Rome regarding Thomas Quartier. The ND has been able to view the new decree and writes that there is talk of “suspension” of the previous Roman decree.
Prior accused
According to De Gelderlander, Prior Hanssens is accused of fraud and a second brother of Keizersberg – not Quartier – is suspected of assault. Documents also show that there was a conflict between various brothers. Quartier filed a complaint about the prior with the curia of the Congregation of Subiaco-Cassino.
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