THE Vatican returned to the attack Saturday over police raids in Belgium investigating new child abuse claims against Roman Catholic clergy. Vatican number two Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the detaining of a number of bishops during the raid was 'serious and unbelievable', comparing it to the practices of communist regimes.
On Friday the Vatican voiced 'astonishment' at how the searches were carried out and 'indignation' at what it called the violation of the graves of two cardinals.
Police had raided several buildings of the Mechelen-Brussels archdiocese, including the episcopal palace at Mechelen, north of the Belgian capital, as bishops were meeting with a Vatican envoy on Thursday.
The police confiscated the bishops' phones for several hours and prevented them from leaving the building during the search.
'It was sequestration, a serious and unbelievable act", Italy's ANSA news agency quoted Bertone, the Vatican secretary general, as saying.
'They went for nine hours without eating or drinking,' he charged.
'There is no precedent, even under the old communist regimes,' Bertone said.
The search had focused on letters exchanged between alleged victims of paedophile priests and Church authorities.
The Brussels prosecutor's office admitted that a crypt was searched, while refusing to confirm the complaints that the tombs of two cardinals had been tampered with.'All I can say is that a vault was opened' during the investigation, a spokeswoman said.
Father Eric De Beukelaer, spokesman for the Mechelen-Brussels archbishop, said the tombs were drilled and a camera pushed in, 'apparently to see whether there were any hidden documents' linked to the paedophilia claims.
SIC: ST
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