Godfried Danneels

Godfried Maria Jules Danneels (4 June 1933 – 14 March 2019) was a Belgian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and the chairman of the Episcopal Conference of Belgium from 1979 to 2010.

[2] From Leuven he was sent to Rome, where he studied Catholic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University whilst living in the Belgian Papal College (1954–1959).

[5] Well before the end of his studies, he was ordained to the priesthood by Emiel Jozef De Smedt, Bishop of Bruges, in a ceremony in the Kanegem parish church on 17 August 1957, the 25th wedding anniversary of his parents.

But he did play a very active role in the implementation of the liturgical reforms of Sacrosanctum Concilium, not only in the Bruges diocese, but in all of Belgium and even abroad.

Even so, from the middle sixties he felt pressurized by Rome (in particular by cardinal Giacomo Lercaro), which was trying get a firmer grip on the liturgical journals in which he wrote.

In Leuven he became thoroughly interested in what was to become his "hobby horse",[11] the interlocking of theology and humanism, which he was to develop throughout his life in both his academic and his pastoral writings.

He received his episcopal consecration on the following 18 December from Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens; co-consecrators were his predecessor Jules Victor Daem and his Bruges bishop De Smedt.

The consecration, in a Dutch-language rite in whose development Danneels himself had been involved as a liturgist, took place in St. James', as the Antwerp cathedral was being restored at the time.

[13] Three days after his consecration he invited Catholics to write him personally with suggestions for their new bishop and he made the rounds of his diocese to consult with people.

[14] Encouraged and aided by his predecessor, Danneels began to build what was to become a very extensive network, which included numerous Belgian politicians.

[16] Pope John Paul II followed the tradition that the Mechelen archbishop be made a cardinal, and created him Cardinal-Priest of Santa Anastasia in the consistory of 2 February 1983.

Danneels' speech attacking the cultural pessimism prevalent among a number of Roman prelates impressed many council fathers as well as Pope John Paul II, who allowed him to go beyond the allotted time.

But when on 6 August 1984, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published Libertatis nuntius, its Instruction on Certain Aspects of the "Theology of Liberation" without even consulting him, though he was a member, he publicly denounced it in several interviews, for its procedure and, more importantly, for its overly intellectual approach of the concept of freedom, which failed to take seriously the pains caused by poverty and by political and military oppression.

[35] In March and April 1990, King Boudewijn's refusal to sign the law liberalizing abortion, drafted by Roger Lallemand and by Lucienne Herman-Michielsens and approved by Parliament, provoked a constitutional crisis.

Danneels flatly denied he did: "Ik heb alvast nooit geprobeerd hem om te praten" (I certainly never tried to talk him [the King] round).

He repeated these views ten years later, in a newspaper interview in which he said:[45] [The Church] has never opposed the fact that there should exist a sort of 'marriage' between homosexuals, but one therefore speaks of a 'sort of' marriage.

[54] Danneels was a consistent and strong supporter of bishop (later cardinal) Monsengwo's attempts to foster democracy in Zaire, mediating between Belgium, Rome and Kinshasa.

A return invitation followed, but problems caused by the coexistence of the official and the underground Catholic Church in China led to Danneels having to postpone his visit.

When it finally happened, in March 2005, Danneels had to cut it short, owing to the death of pope John Paul II on 2 April.

But on 3 April the Chinese government issued a communiqué lauding Pope John Paul's efforts to recognize the Church's errors.

The first to formally organize a contact point for victims of sexual abuse within the Belgian Church was Arthur Luysterman, the bishop of Ghent.

[58] That contact point was the model of the "Commission for Complaints about Sexual Abuse in Pastoral Relations", which the conference of the Belgian bishops (chaired by Danneels) organized on 4 November 1999.

The court held that the Catholic Church in Belgium—not the archbishop himself nor his auxiliary bishop—was guilty of failing to protect the victim, was civilly responsible, and imposed a fine of half a million Belgian francs (now ± €12,500 ).

[59] On 6 December 1999 the authorities began proceedings against Robert Borremans; a priest of the archdiocese, well known because he had been the choral conductor at the marriage of Philippe and Mathilde (now King and Queen).

[65] Speaking through a spokesman, Toon Osaer, Danneels explained that he had been unprepared for this meeting and that his proposal that the victim remain silent was "an improvisation".

On 24 June, in an operation code named Kelk ("Chalice") organized at the request of the Office of the Public Prosecutor, the archiepiscopal palace, Danneels' private apartment, the Leuven seat of the Adriaenssens Commission and even St. Rumbold's Cathedral (where the graves of Cardinal Mercier and Cardinal Suenens were broken into) were simultaneously searched for documents about cases of sexual abuse that could still be prosecuted (unlike that of Vangheluwe, beyond the statute of limitation).

[71] For Danneels, the final chapter of the affair was his appearance, on 21 December 2010, before a parliamentary committee investigating sexual abuse in hierarchical relations.

"[citation needed] Upon the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, Danneels was listed as a possible successor (or papabile) although with weakened credentials due to the fact that he was an archbishop of a country where abortion, euthanasia and same-sex unions had recently been legalized and where, under his watch, church attendance and pastoral vocations have dropped to historical lows.

It was not until 18 January 2010 that Rome imposed its own candidate and replaced Danneels as Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels by André-Mutien Léonard, whom Rauber openly said "non era 'del tutto adatto' per Bruxelles" (was not totally suitable for Brussels).

Austen Ivereigh The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope (With an updated and expanded epilogue) (New York: Picador, 2015) ISBN 978-1-250-07499-7.

Cardinal Danneels in full choir dress (left)