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From the very first speech of his trip to Belgium, September 27, 2024, Pope Francis lamented the scandal of sexual abuse crimes and another tragedy, “forced adoptions.” Investigations have greatly discredited the Catholic Church in Belgium in recent years and the Pope's visit elevated the tensions around these tragedies. Both King Philippe of Belgium and the Prime Minister spoke of the Church's responsibility to repair the “irreparable.”
The day after his arrival in Brussels, Pope Francis visited the Château de Laeken, about eight miles from the nunciature where he is staying during this trip. First, he met with King Philippe in private. Then, he met with some 300 political and religious authorities and representatives of the world of culture and business, in the elegantly chandeliered Grand Gallery. Former Belgian monarchs King Albert II and Queen Paola were also present.
A topic brought up by local authorities
As a sign that the Pope's words on the subject of abuse were eagerly awaited, the King of the Belgians referred in his opening address to the children “horribly bruised, scarred for life” by abuse.
“The same goes for the victims of forced adoption,” he declared. “It has taken so long for their cries to be heard and recognized. It has taken so long to seek ways of 'repairing' the irreparable,” said the King, acknowledging the Church's work in this area.
In 2023, Flemish media outlet Het Laatste Nieuws published a wide-ranging investigation estimating that, between 1945 and the 1980s, thousands of children of unwed mothers — often victims of rape or incest — had been taken from their mothers and placed with families, or even sold, with the support of Belgian nuns.
Also addressing the Pope, liberal Prime Minister Alexander de Croo stressed in a more assertive tone that these cases had “seriously damaged trust.” He insisted that words “are not enough,” pleading for these “atrocities” to be acknowledged and justice done. “Human dignity must take precedence over the interests of the institution,” he told the Church, represented in the person of the pope.
Pope Francis: the Church must be ashamed, ask forgiveness, and change
The Pope did not shy away from the issue. In his first address to Belgians, he acknowledged the Church’s “fragility and shortcomings” in its members. Referring to the “painful counter-testimonies” of Catholics, the Argentine pontiff mentioned “tragic instances of child abuse.”
Francis assured the audience that the Church is tackling this scourge “firmly and decisively by listening to and accompanying those who have been wounded, and by implementing a prevention program throughout the world.
The Pope then left aside his notes to confess the Church's “shame” over the abuse of minors. “It is a source of shame that we all have to take in hand, and ask for pardon and solve the problem,” he declared.
He added, “We think of the time of the Holy Innocents and say, ‘What a tragedy, what King Herod has done!’ But today, this crime is in the Church itself; the Church must be ashamed of itself and ask forgiveness [...] and do everything to ensure that it doesn't happen again.”
“Some people tell me, ‘Your Holiness, remember that according to statistics, the vast majority of abuse takes place in the family, in the neighborhood, in the world of sports, at schools.’ But if there's just one case, that's enough to be ashamed of!” exclaimed the head of the Catholic Church, holding up a single finger. “In the Church,” he insisted, “we have to ask forgiveness for this; let others ask forgiveness on their own. This is our shame and humiliation.”
The abuse crisis in Belgium
In Belgium, after a wave of scandals led to the establishment of commissions of inquiry, the Church set up listening stations a dozen years ago, in 2012. Last year's broadcast on Flemish public television station VRT of a documentary titled Godvergeten (God's Forgotten Ones) once again raised a wave of indignation, provoking the formation of a new commission of inquiry.
According to recent statistics, 764 complaints have since been lodged at Church centers — although many concern crimes that happened long ago and are beyond the statute of limitations. Last year, between July 2022 and June 2023, 47 new complaints were registered, compared with 86 the previous year. More than half of the alleged victims (57%) were men.
There is plenty of proof of the great tension in the country surrounding abuse in the Church. For example, the bishop of Hasselt, Patrick Hoogmartens, admitted he had been careless by paying tribute to a priest guilty of sexual abuse, Fr. Paul Schollaert, who died on September 12. Consequently, Bishop Hoogmartens has had to withdraw from the public celebrations surrounding the Pope's visit.
The “Magnificat” composed by this priest — known for his liturgical compositions — which was to have been sung at Sunday's Mass at the Roi-Baudouin stadium, will be replaced by another piece.
The painful stories of forced adoptions
In his speech, Pope Francis also expressed his sadness at the phenomenon of “forced adoptions.”
In these painful stories, said Francis, “the bitter fruit of a crime was mixed with what was unfortunately the result of a widespread mentality in all strata of society, to such an extent that those who acted in accordance with this mentality believed in conscience that they were doing good, both for the child and the mother.”
“Often, the family and other social actors, including the Church, thought that in order to eliminate the stigma that unfortunately befell single mothers at the time, it was preferable for the good of both mother and child that the latter be adopted,” Francis noted. “There were even cases where some women weren’t given the opportunity to choose between keeping the child or giving it up for adoption,” he lamented. He then added, “And this happens today in some cultures, in some countries.”
The pontiff prayed that “the Church will always find within herself the strength to bring clarity” and not to “conform to the dominant culture, even when that culture uses — and manipulates — values derived from the Gospel to draw unjustified conclusions, with their heavy consequences of suffering and exclusion.”
Respect for borders
In the rest of his speech, the Pope addressed Belgium as the seat of the main European institutions. Situated “on the dividing line between the Germanic and Latin worlds,” it represents “almost a synthesis of Europe,” he stressed, asserting that the continent “needs Belgium to advance along the path of peace and fraternity.”
He urged the Belgian people to “overcome the demographic winter and the hell of war.” “Have children, have children!” he emphasized, as he had the day before in Luxembourg.
The pontiff also preached respect for borders. “When — on the basis of the most varied and untenable pretexts — we begin to disregard borders and treaties, and cede to weapons the right to create law, overthrowing the law in force, we open Pandora's box,” he warned.
Departing from his prepared text, the Pope then expressed fear of an “almost global” war, though without singling out any particular conflicts, even though the Prime Minister had mentioned the war in Ukraine in his speech. The Pontiff prayed that rulers would “fear the judgment of conscience, of history, and of God.”
