The bishop serving as the Belgian Church’s point man on abuse is stepping down, weeks before a papal visit that could be overshadowed by the country’s abuse crisis.
Bishop Johan Bonny confirmed July 25 that he was withdrawing from the high-profile role, citing an excessive workload that he said was taking a toll on his health.
His departure leaves the Belgian Church scrambling to find a successor before Pope Francis’ Sept. 26-29 visit, which is expected to include a private meeting with abuse survivors.
The 69-year-old bishop decided to step back from the role after he appealed unsuccessfully to Rome for an auxiliary bishop to help him oversee his Diocese of Antwerp, which serves around 1.2 million Catholics.
In a letter published July 1, Bonny said the Vatican had denied his request partly because it would upset the balance between French-speaking and Flemish-speaking bishops within Belgium’s bishops’ conference.
This is a sensitive issue due to the friction between the country’s two predominant linguistic groups. For the same reason, Belgium’s most prominent see, the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, traditionally alternates between French-speaking and Flemish-speaking leaders.
Bonny, the Bishop of Antwerp since 2008, said that his plea was also turned down due to opposition from fellow bishops.
“Although I have reservations about every argument, I accept this decision,” he wrote. “It means that I must cut back on my interdiocesan duties, especially by handing over my duties to the bishops’ conference as of Sept. 1, 2024.”
Bonny’s decision to step down as the Belgian Church’s official point of contact for abuse victims was reported by the Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad and confirmed by the bishop in an interview with Belgium’s Radio 1.
Bonny said: “The policy, the media, the negotiations... It’s a very big task and I have to combine that with caring for a large diocese like that of Antwerp.”
“I no longer have the strength for that total sum. I have to reduce that.”
He told Het Nieuwsblad that the work had taken an emotional toll.
“It’s not just about working hours, but it has an immediate personal impact. It’s of a different order than all the other work you do as a bishop,” he explained.
“Even my doctor says, ‘Stop it, it’s destroying you.’”
Bonny urged the bishops’ conference to reassess the division of responsibilities as it searches for his successor by mid-September, with consultations led by Mechelen-Brussels Archbishop Luc Terlinden.
Bonny said it was vital that “whoever takes over is competent enough, but also has enough time and energy to put into it.”
“Very much is now in the hands of one person. For example, Catholic education and contact with the government also fall within my duties,” he noted.
Bonny has faced substantial pressure as the official point of contact for abuse victims since the four-part documentary series “Godvergeten” (“Godforsaken”) was aired in September 2023 by the Belgian television channel VRT Canvas.
The series, which highlighted clerical abuse and cover-ups in Belgium, reportedly prompted a surge in Catholics leaving the Church. It also led to inquiries in the Belgian Federal Parliament and the Flemish Parliament, the legislative body for Belgium’s Flanders region.
Bonny engaged in tense exchanges during a Feb. 23 appearance before a federal parliamentary committee of inquiry. He told his interlocutors that he was tired of the “strong words addressed to the Church for 15 years, in the media, saying that we have done nothing.”
He insisted that the Church had made significant progress since the abuse crisis exploded in 2010, when Bishop Roger Vangheluwe resigned as Bishop of Bruges after admitting he had abused a nephew.
After Vangheluwe stepped down, an independent report recorded 475 abuse complaints against clergy and Church workers from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The police launched surprise raids on Church properties, straining relations between Belgian authorities and the Vatican.
Vangheluwe later admitted to abusing a second nephew, but said that he did not regard himself a pedophile.
After his resignation, the bishop moved to a Catholic community in France, but was not prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired by the time his actions came to light.
He was dismissed from the clerical state in March this year, 14 years after his abuse admission.
Pope Francis is visiting Belgium — a country where roughly half of the 12 million-strong population identify as Catholic — principally to mark the 600th anniversary of the University of Leuven, which split along linguistic lines in 1968 into KU Leuven and UCLouvain.
On Sept. 27, the pope will visit KU Leuven in the city of Leuven, in Belgium’s Flemish Region. The following day, he will travel to UCLouvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, in the country’s primarily French-speaking Walloon Region.
A papal meeting with abuse victims is currently being organized, but details will not be announced before the trip.
The meeting has already generated controversy, with abuse survivor advocates accusing the Church of seeking to handpick participants.
None of the victims interviewed in the “Godvergeten” were invited to a preliminary meeting June 15, according to Belgian media reports. But a bishops’ conference spokesperson insisted there was “no question of excluding certain people.”
