What happened?

Cardinal Godfried Danneels, for years one of the dominant figures in European Catholicism, has died aged 85 in his hometown of Mechelen, Belgium.

A champion of liberal Catholicism, Danneels was a prominent member of the “St Gallen Group” of churchmen.

His later years were marked by the abuse crisis. He was secretly recorded telling a man who had been abused by his uncle, a bishop, that it would be better to remain silent until the bishop had retired.

What churchmen said

Cardinal Jozef De Kesel, chairman of the Belgian bishops’ conference, said the Belgian Church was “very grateful” for Cardinal Danneels’s service.