Spokesman for Belgium’s barmiest Catholic has had enough and quits

From "the Freethinker Blog"

THE spokesman for Andre Leonard, Belgium’s ultra-conservative archbishop, quit this week, saying he could no longer speak for a “loose canon,” who has shocked Catholics by sympathising with priests accused of paedophilia and condemning homosexuals.

Juergen Mettepenninge
The resignation of spokesman Juergen Mettepenningen reflected turmoil in Belgium’s Catholic Church that began with a June 24 police raid on church offices, part of an investigation into hundreds of cases of sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.
Aggravating matters – at a time when the church needed public support – the batty old Archbishop spouted a load of tosh about gays, calling AIDS “immanent justice” for homosexuals, and saying that prosecuting retired priests for child abuse cases would be “vengeful.”
Mettepenningen said Leonard was out of touch with Belgium’s Catholic base.
At times, he behaved like a loose cannon who thinks everybody else is wrong. I was his GPS for three months. But it is the driver who has his hands on the wheel and sets the course.
In recent weeks, mainstream Catholic organisations have publicly spoken out against Leonard’s barmy views.
On Tuesday, socialist legislator Jean-Marie de Meester filed a complaint against him with Belgium’s anti-racism centre for his homophobia.
Mettepenningen said Leonard had ignored an agreement between the two of them to refrain from controversial statements until Christmas.
But at an All Saints Mass in Brussels on Monday, Leonard spoke publicly – and unapologetically – about his conservative views.
In an interview with the Brussels daily De Standaard last weekend, Mettepenningen first signalled he had had enough. He said:

Many people wonder, ‘How does he (Mettepenningen) keep this up? Well, I ask myself the same question.
In Belgium, at least 500 people have filed sex abuse cases against priests with the Brussels’ prosecutor’s office. The most notable one involves Roger Vangheluwe, the former bishop of Bruges who resigned in April after admitting he sexually abused a nephew for years.
As the archbishop of Belgium, Leonard is the country’s Roman Catholic primate. He was appointed on Jan. 18 by Pope Benedict XVI whose choice for a very conservative hand on the wheel of the Belgian church disappointed many in this country.
Leonard succeeded Godfried Danneels who was more moderate but whose reputation was blemished by the church abuse scandal, which broke after his retirement and has shown him as lack-lustre in cracking down on abusing priests.

How can one countenance such appalling double standards? Those insults to abused children, GLBT people and AIDS sufferers? This excrement is not human, let alone "christian"