From Thursday to this Sunday, the Pope will therefore have visited several places in the country. A look back at his time in Belgium, between controversies and speeches.
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, emphasizing that the latter should “be ashamed and ask for forgiveness“. The 87-year-old head of the Catholic Church also made more polemical comments on the place of women in society or on the law authorizing abortion under certain conditions, calling it a “killer law”.
Do not cover up abuse
During Sunday morning Mass, Pope Francis asked “everyone not to cover up ‘abuse’” and to condemn the aggressors in order to be able to “cure 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 again expressed. The sovereign pontiff added that “things must be known” and “denounce those who ‘abuse’. It takes courage to do it“, he greeted. “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 had emphasized that it was “within the Church itself“that ‘this crime’ was lurking.”What crimes are there?” 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” au “scourge“sexual violence against minors.
Friday eveningthe pope met 15 victims of sexual violence committed within the Church. “Although you have repeatedly addressed this subject with clarity and conviction, you have never addressed us, the victims, or more precisely the survivors, as a whole.“, several of them pleaded in a letter addressed to the sovereign pontiff. An exchange was finally organized and lasted two hours.
“King Baudouin, a man of faith”
SATURDAYthe 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 king of the Belgians 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 upon 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 International Abortion Rights Day“. “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.”
Women were again discussed in Louvain-la-Neuve, where the Pope visited on Saturday as part of the 600th 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 “the woman is fertile welcome, care, vital devotion“. 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 discourse, he encouraged universities to be “protagonists in creating a culture of inclusion, compassion, attention to the weakest and 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 Louvanist rector Luc Sels had previously alluded. In another register, the sovereign pontiff praised the university’s welcoming policy, which has “opened (his) arms to welcome“refugees and”help them study and grow” while “some call for the strengthening of 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.
Pope visit of the pope brussels mass
