Last week police in Belgium broke up a meeting of the country's Catholic bishops - who were discussing how to deal with the pedophile priest crisis - to investigate claims of child abuse by Belgian clergy.



The raid provoked, predictably, the anger of the Vatican.



There also were death threats against witnesses and magistrates.



This morning (July 6th, 2010) former head of the Belgian church, cardinal Godfried Danneels is interrogated by the police. He will be asked to explain why hundreds of documents, relating to the murder of two young girls by Marc Dutroux, and pictures of their death bodies and of the autopsy were found at the episcopal palace. Those documents belonged to the confidential files of the police.



He will also be asked to explain some letters found during the investigation which mentioned testimonials of victims of abuse by clericals that had been burned and in which the question was asked what to do about those still in existence that hadn't as yet been transmitted to its own abuse panel.



Police spokespersons said it would be a long interrogation. Tags: catholic church, godfried danneels, religious crimes