Tone deaf and color blind? The Catholic Church is fighting to keep accused perpetrators away from religious art

BRUSSELS (AP) — There are few things that bring more heavenly bliss to believers or more otherworldly wonders to casual visitors than heavenly hymns ringing between the columns of Catholic cathedrals. Unless the composer is a known perpetrator or someone accused of sexual abuse.

A few days before the climax of Pope Francis' visit to Belgium – a mass in Brussels' largest stadium – the specially selected 120-strong choir was rehearsing a brand new final song when it was revealed that the composer was a priest who had suffered harassment young women were accused.

The hymn was hastily removed from the order of service and replaced with another composition, but it was too late to reprint the official Magnificat booklet for the mass due to the number of copies required. At the very bottom of page 52 is the name of the alleged perpetrator, who died two weeks ago, next to a request for donations, a bank account number and a QR code.

It was the latest controversy in the Belgian church's decades-long struggle to resolve a conflict Horrific story of sexual abuse and cover-ups by his priests and clergy – a legacy that Francis will personally grapple with when he meets survivors of abuse during his visit.

“I brought it to their attention,” said the Rev. Rik Deville, a retired priest who has advocated for survivors of clerical abuse for three decades. “What happened to the anthem is just a symptom of a much broader problem. They still can’t solve the problem,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Belgium has faced an ongoing challenge for over two decades Cascade of abuse reports Officially, this amounts to several hundred known cases, which, according to supporters, represent only the tip of the iceberg: many of the victims and perpetrators have died or the alleged crimes have exceeded their statute of limitations.

Deville said victims in villages face such problems on a weekly basis. The Sunday Mass scandal only began earlier this week when an abuse victim pointed out to a local bishop that he had warmly praised the recently deceased priest and composer, who had actually been an abuser.

Limburg Bishop Patrick Hoogmartens then announced that he would not take part in ceremonial papal events. It triggered the chain of events that led to the change in the program of the fair.

“It’s only now, because it’s an international event, that something is being done about it,” Deville said. “But things like this happen on a weekly basis in communities across the country, so victims are faced with this. And then nothing is done about it.”

Church authorities said the hymns were chosen in consultation with the musicians, who were unaware of the case, which only became public after the priest's recent death. Hundreds of churches across Belgium still have hymn books containing his works.

Archbishop Luc Terlinden promised the church would look into the matter once the pope leaves.

“His songs are sung in every community every Sunday. So it's a broader problem. And I would like to examine this from Monday to see what we will do in the future with our policy towards perpetrators and facts out of respect for the victims,” Terlinden told the VRT network.

Debates about what to do with art, be it music or paintings, when the artist has exhibited problematic or even criminal behavior have preoccupied the church and society at large for centuries, long before “cancel culture” became a buzzword.

Few people argue that Caravaggio's religious masterpieces should be destroyed or torn down because of his criminal life: the man he killed is dead, just like him.

But in Los Angeles four years ago, the archdiocese banned the music of Catholic composer David Haas as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, allegations that Haas strenuously denied.

And more recently, the mosaics of one of the Catholic Church's most renowned contemporary artists, Father Marko Rupnik, have come under scrutiny.

Rupnik's Jesuit order expelled him in 2023 after more than two dozen women accused him of spiritual, psychological and sexual abuse, some while he was creating the artwork. Francis reopened an ecclesiastical investigation amid suspicions that Rupnik had escaped punishment in Francis' Jesuit-friendly Vatican.

Rupnik has not publicly responded to the allegations, but his art studio has defended him and denounced what it described as “…” “Lynching” the media.

The question of what to do with his artwork is not insignificant, as Rupnik's mosaics decorate the facades and altars of some of the most visited basilicas and churches around the world, including Lourdes, France; in Fatima, Portugal and even in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican.

So far that is Bishop of Lourdes decided to keep the Rupnik mosaics for the time being because there was no consensus within a committee of experts he had formed about what should be done with them. The religious fraternity of the Knights of Columbus decided to do so this summer cover the mosaics at his shrine in Washingtonand chapel in Connecticut.

But earlier this year, the head of the Vatican's communications department caused an uproar when he defended the continued use of images of Rupnik's mosaics on the Vatican's own news portal, Vatican News, despite a canonical investigation underway in the Vatican's sex crimes office is.

He argued, as did others, that art must be separated from the artist.

That argument did not sit well with Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the pope's top adviser on child protection and combating clerical abuse. He wrote a letter to the heads of all offices in the Vatican asked them in June not to display Rupnik's artwork as a gesture to victims of abuse.

“Pastoral prudence would prevent works of art from being exhibited in a manner that could constitute either an exoneration or a subtle defense,” he wrote in June. “We must avoid sending the message that the Holy See is not aware of the psychological distress that so many suffer.”

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