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An extraordinary series of raids on the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium provoked sharp criticism from the Vatican on Friday, with the church expressing “amazement” and “disdain” a day after Belgian investigators interrupted a bishops’ meeting at the church’s Brussels headquarters, detaining clerics for nine hours, and opened an archbishop’s grave at a cathedral north of the city.

...The aggressiveness of the raids — coming after hundreds of complaints of sex abuse had been lodged with the Belgian church’s special commission within a few months — represented a major departure in Belgium’s investigation of church-related sex crimes.

In the raid on the church headquarters, at the imposing palace of the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, the police questioned all the bishops attending the meeting, as well as staff members, including cooks and drivers.

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