Pope Francis was strongly questioned on Saturday by students on the question of gender equality and the place of women in the Catholic Church, but his response aroused disappointment and incomprehension, including from the Belgian university who welcomed him.
On the second day of his visit to Belgium, the Argentine pontiff had scheduled an exchange at the French-speaking Catholic university of Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL), on the theme of ecology and the climate crisis.
An opportunity seized by students and professors to also question social justice and poverty, “majority female” due to the “system of domination” offering men the leading roles in society. And a fortiori in the Church.
“The invisibility of women (…) has consequences on the way we experience the ecological transition,” they proclaimed in a text read in public in front of several hundred students and members of the academic and university staff.
“The call for integral development seems to us to be incompatible with positions on homosexuality and with the place of women in the Catholic Church,” they added.
“The Church is a woman,” Francis replied. “What characterizes women, what is feminine, is not determined by consensus or ideologies,” he continued, without addressing what the concrete developments could be on the place of women in the Church. .
Immediately after this exchange, UC Louvain published a press release expressing its “incomprehension” and “disapproval”. To affirm, as the pope did, that women are “fertile welcome, care, vital devotion” is “a reductive position”, castigated the university, which wants to be “inclusive” and opposed to sexism.
Valentine Hendrix, who is doing a master’s degree in international relations at UCL, said she was “extremely disappointed” by the pope’s comments. “He really left us on the sidelines, we are really shocked by what he said about the role of women in society: we have a fertile, marital, maternity role, today it is exactly everything we want to free ourselves from,” lamented the 22-year-old student.
A disappointment shared by climatologist Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele, a figure in the French-speaking Catholic university. The pope “was not up to the task”, according to him. “Replying ‘The Church is a woman’ is completely missing the heart of the question.”
– Controversial tribute to King Baudoin –
Since his election in 2013, the Argentine pope has insisted on the place given to women, for example increasing the number of appointments to positions of responsibility in the Curia, the central government of the Holy See. But the associations criticize it for not doing enough in this direction, in particular by refusing to open the way to the female diaconate.
This exchange in Belgium took place a few days before the opening at the Vatican of the General Assembly of the Synod on the future of the Church, a vast project of the Pope which focuses in particular on the place of women in the Church.
Already on Friday, Luc Sels, rector of KU Leuven, the Flemish counterpart of the Catholic University of Louvain, had raised in front of the Pope the “big difference between men and women in the Church”, which nevertheless is “de facto so often supported by women.
“Wouldn’t the Church be warmer with a more important place given to women also in the priesthood?” he asked. A question to which François did not answer.
On Saturday, the pope sparked another controversy by deviating from his official program to bow in Brussels at the tomb of the former Belgian sovereign Baudouin (1951-1993), whose “courage” he praised for his being opposed in 1990 to the “killer law” on abortion.
The Belgian royal palace made it clear that King Philippe, Baudouin’s nephew, and his wife Mathilde had accompanied the Pope, “out of courtesy”, during this “impromptu visit” and of a “strictly private nature” to the royal crypt of Laeken. A way of distancing oneself from François’ gesture.
Arriving Thursday evening in Belgium, the pope must conclude his visit on Sunday with a high mass at the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels, where more than 35,000 faithful are expected.
