I remember Bruges. I visited once for three days about 10-year ago. I drank my weight in good beer, tried to work through the hangovers by eating truffles… and stayed away from the local Catholic church. It seems my beer addled brain’s craving for more beer (and sausages!) steered me to a tavern instead of the cathedral tour. Later that night I dimly remember carrying a female friend back to the hotel while holding her boy friend steady with my free hand, and this after pulling him out of the bushes near the same church. Oh… and the nice police man who helped me find my hotel. Ah Bruges… good times, except for the whole pedophile priest thing.
The longest-serving Roman Catholic bishop in Belgium has resigned after admitting sexually abusing a boy for years. Roger Vangheluwe, 73, said that he was “enormously sorry” for molesting the boy from before he was made Bishop of Bruges in 1985.
The Vatican accepted his resignation only a day after a lawsuit was filed in the US against Pope Benedict XVI over sex abuse committed by an American priest.
One other thing about Bruges… I was living in France at the time and Jonesing for a real steak. I found a dinner-plate-sized steak called the Big Nebraskan next to a pub (everything is next to a pub). Bruges delivered!
