He The Vatican expelled 18 Belgian monks from the ranks of clergy in recent years, at the request of the Catholic Church of Belgium itself, after the system of ordinary justice declared them guilty of sexual assault casesas a Flemish newspaper reported this Saturday Het Newsblad.

The newspaper does not specify the exact year in which the Belgian Church began to demand that the Vatican strip the priesthood of clergy found guilty, but indicates that, presumably, this The protocol that the Belgian Church now follows when the court finds that sexual abuse has been proven.

“Each new case of violence is sent to Rome with an explicit request to take specific measures against the person in question.”– explained the representative of the Belgian Episcopal Conference Geert de Kerpel in statements collected Het Newsblad.

Belgian bishops do not ask the Holy See for expulsion of believers until their abuses are proven in courtalthough even before this point is reached, the Bishops’ Conference is already imposing initial sanctions, as the Belgian newspaper explains in its account of the events.

Deprivation of the status of a clergyman implies the loss of habits and all church duties and rights.which then leads to a state of secularization.

In addition to these 18 clergy who were expelled in recent years after the condemnation of ordinary justice, the Belgian Episcopal Conference added that Another 20 people also appealed to the Vatican to secularize them.but in this case on his own initiative.

This news will appear after this Thursday Pope Francis expelled former Bishop of the Belgian Diocese of Bruges Roger Vangeluwe from the clergyWhat admitted that he abused at least one of his nephews when he was a minor, and whose case became one of the most high-profile cases in Belgium related to sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.