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Belgium is again rocked by scandal after the September 10 publication of the final report of the Commission established by the Catholic church to investigate cases of paedophilia committed there by Catholic priests between 1950 and 1985. The testimony of the victims — some 475 "survivors", plus 13 who have committed suicide — is so devastating, and the cases so widespread throughout congregations and Catholic boarding schools, that the report's author, independent child psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens, has called it "the Belgian church's Dutroux case", a phrase that Le Soir picked up for the title of its article, referring to a particularly detestable paedophile case in Belgium. While the daily condemns the "substantial responsibility of the Church" in the matter, it also points a finger at Belgian society as a whole, accusing it of failing to protect children because of the "poor organisation of its education system", as well as to its excessive "submission to religious authority".
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