Lhe Pope Francis closed, with a mass presided over on Sunday at the King Baudouin stadium, a visit spread over four days to Belgium. His interventions oscillated between an expected speech and controversial remarks. During his visit, the sovereign pontiff spoke about sexual violence committed within the Church, stressing that the latter should “be ashamed and ask for forgiveness”. The 87-year-old head of the Catholic Church also made more controversial comments on the place of women in society or on the law authorizing abortion under certain conditions, calling it a “killer law”.
During Sunday morning’s mass, Pope Francis asked “everyone not to cover up ‘abuse'” and to condemn the attackers in order to be able to “heal from this disease that is ‘abuse'”, referring to sexual violence. committed within the Church. “I ask the bishops: do not cover up abuse, condemn those who abuse,” he further expressed.
The sovereign pontiff added that it was necessary “to make things known” and “to denounce those who “abuse”. It takes courage to do it,” he said. “Those who “abuse” must be judged, whether they are lay people, priests or bishops,” insisted the head of the Catholic Church.
The sovereign pontiff had already addressed the topic Friday morning at the Château de Laeken, where he was received. The Argentine Jesuit emphasized that it was “within the Church itself” that “this crime” lurked. “This crime exists” and “the Church must be ashamed, ask for forgiveness,” he added. At the same time, the Pope assured that the Church was attacking “with determination and firmness” the “scourge” of sexual violence against minors.
Friday evening, the Pope met with 15 victims of sexual violence committed within the Church. “Although you have repeatedly addressed this subject with clarity and strength of conviction, you have never addressed us, the victims, or more precisely the survivors, as a whole,” several of them had pleaded. between them in a letter addressed to the sovereign pontiff. An exchange was finally organized and lasted two hours.
“Murderous law”
On Saturday, the head of the Catholic Church made remarks of a different nature about the right to abortion, recognized in Belgium under certain conditions. He praised the “courage” which the fifth Belgian king had shown in 1990 when he chose to “leave his place as King so as not to sign a murderous law”. The Pope then went to meditate for a few moments in the Royal Crypt in Laeken, accompanied by King Philippe, nephew of Baudouin, Queen Mathilde and the sixth Belgian king Albert II.
Baudouin was something of a surprise guest at the mass presided over by the pope on Sunday. The latter in fact announced that on his return to Rome, he would initiate the “beatification process” of the Belgian monarch, described as a “man of faith”. “I ask the bishops to participate in this process,” added the sovereign pontiff to the applause of the stadium.
Pope Francis’ comments on the right to abortion caused the Secular Action Center to jump. The latter denounced a “provocation, on the same day as the International Day for the Right to Abortion”. “Access to this medical procedure in dignified and safe conditions is a fundamental right for all women. To oppose it is, on the contrary, to place women in a risky situation for their health. »
“Woman is fertile welcome”
Women were again discussed in Louvain-la-Neuve, where the Pope went on Saturday as part of the 600e anniversary of the University of Louvain. The head of the Catholic Church this time clashed with UCLouvain, affirming within the walls of the Aula Magna that “woman is fruitful welcome, care, vital dedication”. A “deterministic and reductive” vision that the university deplored.
The Pope also visited KU Leuven, the sister institution of the French-speaking Leuven University. In a more conventional speech, he encouraged universities to be “protagonists in the creation of a culture of inclusion, compassion, attention to the weakest and to the great challenges of the world in which we live”. On the other hand, he did not mention the rights of women and LGBTQIA+, to which the Leuven rector Luc Sels had previously alluded. In another register, the sovereign pontiff praised the reception policy of the university, which has “opened (its) arms to welcome” refugees and “help them to study and grow” while “some call for strengthening borders”.
Pope Francis also made several extra-scheduled visits. This was the case on Saturday morning at the church of Saint-Gilles, where he shared breakfast with vulnerable people. In the evening, he also met several thousand young people gathered on the Heysel plateau during the Hope Happening religious festival.
The high point of this papal visit to Belgium was the celebration of mass in the King Baudouin stadium on Sunday in front of some 37,500 people. The sovereign pontiff took a lap of honor in his famous popemobile before taking his place on the podium installed for the occasion. At the end of the Eucharist, the Pope headed directly to Melsbroek airport, from where he flew at midday to return to Rome.
