Pope Francis promised Saturday to “offer all the assistance we will” to help clergy sexual abuse victims, after a gaggle of Belgian survivors told him first-hand of the trauma that had shattered their lives and left many in poverty and mental misery.
Francis’ visit to Belgium has been dominated by the abuse scandal, with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo each blasting the Catholic Church’s dreadful legacy of priests raping and molesting children and its decades-long cover-up of the crimes.
Francis met for greater than two hours late Friday with 17 survivors who’re in search of reparations from the church for the trauma they suffered and to pay for the therapy many need. They said they gave Francis a month to think about their requests, which the Vatican said Francis was studying.
“There are so many victims. There are also so many victims who’re still completely broke,” survivor Koen Van Sumere told The Associated Press. “I actually have also been lucky enough to get a diploma and construct a life for myself. But there are such a lot of people who find themselves completely broke and who need assistance and who cannot afford it and who really want urgent help now.”
NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/POOL/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images
Van Sumere said he was encouraged by the “positive” meeting with the pope, but was waiting to see what comes of it. The meeting itself was intense, victims said, “It was at certain moments very emotional and at certain moments it was very rough. When the pope was told things he didn’t agree with, he also let it’s known so there was real interaction,” Van Sumere said.
He said he hoped as a primary step that the pope would receive the victims on the Vatican within the spring during Holy Week. “And then we will not only have a good time the resurrection of Christ but perhaps also the resurrection of all victims in Belgium,” he said.
On Saturday, during a gathering with Belgian clergy and nuns on the Koekelberg Basilica, Francis acknowledged that the abuse scandal had created “atrocious suffering and wounds,” and undermined the religion.
“There is a necessity for an amazing deal of mercy to maintain us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims in order that we will help them feel our closeness and offer all the assistance we will,” he said.
He said the Belgian church must learn from victims and serve them. “Indeed, one among the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power once we use the positions now we have to crush or manipulate others,” he said.
Francis has met with victims within the United States, Ireland and Canada, in addition to in multiple occasions on the Vatican. He has cracked down on some bishops who did not protect their flocks by passing latest church rules on investigations and punishments. But the scandal has continued to fester, and Francis’ record is uneven, with several high-profile cases still pending or seemingly ignored.
Most galling to Belgians was that it took the Vatican 14 years to laicize Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who admitted in 2010 to having abused his nephew for 13 years. Francis defrocked him in March in a move widely seen as attempting to remove an issue before his visit.
After the encounter, Francis went to the royal crypt within the Church of Our Lady to hope on the tomb of King Baudouin, best known for having refused to present a parliament-approved bill legalizing abortion his royal assent, one among his constitutional duties.
Baudouin stepped down for sooner or later in 1990 to permit the federal government to pass the law, which he was required to sign, before he was reinstated as king.
Francis praised Baudouin’s courage when he decided to “leave his position as king to not sign a homicidal law,” based on the Vatican summary of the private encounter, which was attended by Baudouin’s nephew, King Philippe, and Queen Mathilde.
The pope then referred to a latest legislative proposal to increase the legal limit for an abortion in Belgium, from 12 weeks to 18 weeks after conception. The bill failed on the last minute because parties in government negotiations considered the timing inopportune.
ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images
Francis urged Belgians to look to Baudouin’s example in stopping such a law, and added that he hoped Baudouin’s beatification cause would move ahead, the Vatican said.
With the visit, Francis waded straight into Belgian politics and dragged the royal family together with him.
The royals are certain by strict neutrality and the palace immediately issued a press release distancing itself from the visit. The statement said the “spontaneous visit, on the pope’s request, was not a part of the official program” and added the king and queen were there only “out of hospitality toward the pope.”
Francis began the day by having breakfast — coffee and croissants — with a gaggle of 10 homeless people and migrants who’re sorted by the St. Gilles parish of Brussels.
They sat around a table at the doorway of the parish church and told him their stories, and gave him bottles of beer that the parish makes, “La Biche de Saint-Gilles.” The proceeds of the beer sales help fund the parish’s charity works.
Francis thanked them for the beer and breakfast and told them that the church’s true wealth was in caring for the weakest.
“If we wish to actually know and show the church’s beauty, we must always give to 1 one other like this, in our smallness, in our poverty, without pretexts and with much love.”
The breakfast encounter was presided over by Marie-Françoise Boveroulle, an adjunct episcopal vicar for the diocese. The position is generally filled by a priest, but Boveroulle’s appointment has been highlighted as evidence of the roles that women can and will play within the church.
