"Benedictine monastery once in the vanguard of modern liturgical reform evaporates in sexual scandal"

"The small Benedictine order that still resides in the Keizersberg Abbey (also known as Mont Cesar) in Leuven is being temporarily dissolved with immediate effect. This was reported by VRT NWS.

The intervention is a result of complaints about inappropriate behavior. Four monks are still residing in the abbey in a separate wing of the building. The largest part of the abbey is used by independent entrepreneurs, artists and associations. A number of students are also staying there.

Complaints to the reporting center for sexual violence in the church are always assessed by the federal public prosecutor's office, which then forwards them, if serious, to the territorially competent public prosecutor's office. According to VRT NWS, the Leuven public prosecutor's office has confirmed that this procedure is currently being followed.

In the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, swift action has already been taken. The four monks must move to other monastic communities with immediate effect. That is why the small order is being dissolved, at least temporarily...

A few days ago it was announced that the public prosecutor in Belgium is conducting a criminal investigation into complaints about inappropriate behavior by one or two members of the small monastic community, which has only four members, including Thomas Quartier. It was also announced that the Benedictine authorities have temporarily dissolved the community in Leuven. The public prosecutor's office in Leuven indicated today, when asked, that Quartier is not a suspect in this case.

According to documents that the ND has seen, Quartier is accused of abuse and transgressive behavior towards a 29-year-old man who entered the Sint-Willibrordsabdij as a novice in November 2018. He was also a former student of Quartier at Radboud University in Nijmegen.

Brother Quartier is said to have wanted an 'exclusive, unconditional relationship of trust' with the nineteen-year-old novice, in which, according to the documents, there should also be room for physicality and eroticism, writes the ND."