Bishop Bonny: 15 years of fighting abuse - a look back at courage and disappointment

Bishop Bonny: 15 years of fighting abuse - a look back at courage and disappointment

Johan Bonny, the Bishop of Antwerp, has made a remarkable contribution to the issue of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in recent years. The monsignor, born on July 10, 1955 in Ostend, has shown an extraordinary commitment to addressing this difficult issue throughout his ecclesiastical career. Bonny is the eldest of five children who grew up in a farming household. After studying theology in Bruges and Rome, he was ordained a priest in 1980 and took on numerous responsibilities, both as an attentive teacher and as a committed pastor.

In January 2009, Bonny took office as Bishop of Antwerp and has since then actively promoted an integrative and person-centered ethics within the Church. He advocates a stronger connection between the church and contemporary society, which is reflected, for example, in his call for the acceptance of homosexual relationships. As early as 2014, he called for the church to recognize such relationships, for which he was awarded a prize from çavaria, the Flemish LGBT organization, in 2015.

Dealing with the abuse crisis

As head of the sexual abuse investigation commission, Bonny was a central figure in the investigation of abuse cases in Belgium for over 15 years. The latest reports speak of 1,400 people affected in Flanders, but most of these cases have already expired. Bonny is disappointed by the inadequate measures taken by his predecessors, who in the past have often failed to take concrete educational and preventative steps to restore trust in the church. He emphasizes the importance of hearing the voices of those affected and providing them with significant help, including psychological and financial support.

After resigning from his position as abuse commissioner in July 2024 due to health and emotional stress as well as a lack of support for his work, Bonny looks back on an intense, albeit challenging time. “I wanted to work intensively on addressing the abuse problem, but the answers I received were disappointing,” he said recently. He aims to continue regular discussions with those affected and plans to intensify his support in his diocese.

The look into the future

At almost 70 years old, Bonny plans to continue to advocate for the victims' needs and lead the church on a better path. He will meet with Pope Francis in September to discuss the burden of coming to terms with it. The talks could be crucial for the church's future path and the restoration of people's faith in the institution.

The challenges facing the church cannot be underestimated. Dealing with the cases of abuse is not just a task, but for Bonny it is a question of the credibility of the Catholic Church. His tireless commitment to stand up for those affected can be seen as pointing the way for the times to come.

The issues surrounding illness, emotional distress and dealing with history are highly sensitive for many in the clergy. Coming to terms with this is a burden that many priests and bishops carry, and Bonny has tirelessly tackled Christian as one of the leading figures in this process. But the time around the consequences of the history of abuse slips through your fingers like sand if no active action is taken.

The coming months will show how the efforts towards transparency and processing will develop and what fruit they will bear. It remains to be hoped that the necessary progress will be made and that Bonny will prove a good hand in his mission to reform the church.

Cathedral radio reports that after numerous activities in various church offices and his appointment as bishop, Johan Bonny is an indispensable part of the reform processes in the Belgian Church. You can find out more about his background and career here. There is also a lot about his role in dealing with the abuse problem in the reports on katholisch.de to read.