The pope has in recent weeks compared doctors performing abortions to “hired killers”.
Comments which aroused indignation in Belgium, where the sovereign made this speech.
More than 500 Belgians have even asked to be renamed.
Words that do not get across, including among the faithful. At the end of September, while on a trip to Belgium, Pope Francis (new window) aroused the indignation of part of the population by raising the subject of abortion. On the plane back to Rome, after four days of travel, the head of the Catholic Church once again castigated abortion (new window) by qualifying “killer law” the legislation passed in 1990 in Belgium decriminalizing it and comparing doctors who practice it to “hitmen”.
“The time when the Church dictated the agenda of political work is over”
“The doctors who do this, allow me the expression, are hired killers”launched the 87-year-old pope (see the video at the top of this article). “It’s not debatable. You’re killing a human life, and women have the right to protect life.” This expression had already been used in the past by the Argentine Jesuit…
…And it shocked the Belgian population. According to RTBF (new window)more than 520 people sent an open letter to the country’s religious authorities in mid-October. They denounce the sovereign’s remarks, and go even further by asking to be renamed as a form of protest.
The pope also attracted the wrath of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. “I ask for respect for doctors who do their work with soul and conscience within the limits of a legal framework. For a foreign head of state to make this type of comment about the laws of our country is totally unacceptable”denounced the Flemish liberal leader. “We have no lessons to learn regarding the voting of democratic laws by parliamentarians. The time when the Church dictated the agenda of political work is over.”
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