A Belgian journalist who serves as spokesman for the nation's cardinal has said that Catholics in his country were "scandalised" by an archbishop's testimony to a parliamentary commission on sexual abuse by priests.
In response to questions by commission members, Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Mechelen-Brussels, president of the Belgian bishops' conference, said he feared the consequences of compensating victims, because payments could also be demanded for "unhappy children born via artificial insemination" or facing the "psychological impact" of being raised by same-sex couples.
