Bishop admits abusing 2nd nephew

BRUSSELS -- A former Belgian bishop at the center of a pedophile scandal said Thursday that he also abused a second nephew and insisted he had no plans to abandon the priesthood.

In his first television interview since the scandal broke a year ago, Roger Vangheluwe claimed he paid one nephew he abused for years tens of thousands of euros in support, but denied it was meant to keep him silent.

He called 13 years of sexual abuse of one nephew as no more than "a little piece of intimacy." He said the abuse of a second nephew was very short.

He said he fully realized what he did was wrong, and often went to confession about it. The 74-year-old Vangheluwe resigned a year ago, just as the sex abuse scandal was spreading across Europe.

The acknowledgment of more abuse and his attempts to minimize its effect immediately caused an outcry. Vangheluwe said the 13-year abuse of his nephew "started as, I would call it, a game. And in fact it never went much beyond that," he told VT4 network.

"It was not brutal sex," Vangheluwe said.

Walter Van Steenbrugge, the lawyer for the nephew, responded by saying that "knowing what happened, I want to ask him what he then understands to be brutal sex." He also denied Vangheluwe's claim that he paid the victim $36,000 several times over.

Carina Van Couter, of the parliamentary committee into sexual abuse, said Vangheluwe "tries to turn his victims into culprits. He throws some salt in their wounds."

Vangheluwe complained in the hour-long VT4 interview that the church was targeted in abuse probes, and that other sectors like sports organizations were let off too easily.

He said that despite admitting the abuse, he would never willingly forsake his priesthood. He said he had made his vows and he would "not break them." He is not allowed to celebrate Mass publicly since the scandal.

Earlier this week, the Vatican used its new rules to crack down on sex abuse by high-ranking churchmen by ordering Vangheluwe to no longer work as a priest while officials determine his punishment.

Over the weekend, Belgian bishops reported that Vangheluwe had merely been sent outside the country for spiritual and psychological counseling.

The interview was set up in a secret location somewhere along the Loire river known for its grand chateaux and superb gardens in central France.

Pope Benedict XVI will eventually decide his fate. He could be stripped of his priesthood.