Vatican steps up criticism of raids in abuse cases

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican yesterday stepped up its criticism of raids carried out by Belgian police investigating priestly sex abuse allegations, with the No. 2 official saying yesterday that the raids are unprecedented even under communism.

The raids last week targeted the home and office of a retired archbishop and also the graves of two prelates.

"It is an unheard-of and very grave fact," Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, said yesterday. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Rome, Bertone lamented that bishops were held for nine hours without food or drink.

"There are no precedents, not even in Communist regimes," Bertone said, according to Italian news agencies.

The Vatican has summoned the Belgian ambassador to the Holy See to convey its anger.

In a statement from Bertone's office on Friday, the Vatican said it was astonished and outraged at the violation of the tombs.

Belgian police on Thursday raided the home and former office of former Archbishop Godfried Danneels, taking documents and his personal computer.

Police and prosecutors did not say whether Danneels was suspected of abuse himself or simply had records pertaining to allegations against another person. He was not questioned.

Investigators also opened the graves of archbishops in the St. Rombouts Cathedral in Mechlin, north of Brussels, looking for possibly incriminating documents, according to the office of the Brussels public prosecutor.

Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, lamented the "brutality" of the raid on the cathedral, claiming that "there is something that goes beyond the legitimate requirements of justice."

It said the raid "smacks of a settling of the score" with the church by a secular country.

- AP