Anti-abortion king praised by Pope being considered for sainthood

On September 29, during the concluding mass of his trip to Belgium, Pope Francis created a surprise by announcing that he would open the process for the beatification of King Baudouin, who ruled Belgium from 1951 to 1993.

The Pontiff proposed him as an example of good government, praising in particular his refusal to endorse a “homicidal law.”

This deeply Catholic king refused to sign the legalization of abortion in 1990 -- he found a way around it by declaring himself unable to reign for 36 hours. Thus the law had to be promulgated without royal signature.

The Pope's comment sparked a heated debate and generated criticism from the Belgian pro-choice government. It also took the country's bishops by surprise. “The bishops never asked for the beatification of King Baudouin,” said Bishop Guy Harpigny of the diocese of Tournai, on Notélé Belgique.

Now, less than three months later, Rome has taken up the cause. The dicastery responsible for the study of sainthood files began the process by setting up a historical commission made up of “specialists in archives and Belgian history,” the press release states. These experts will gather documentation and assess whether the late king's life meets the criteria for sainthood.

Usually, candidates' files are submitted to Rome after a local process in the home dioceses of the future saints. This time, however, Pope Francis, eager to advance the cause personally, has entrusted the Roman dicastery with initiating the work directly.

The beatification process may meet with a certain amount of reserve, as King Baudouin remains a “personality of contemporary history” about whom “much remains to be discovered,” as Belgian journalist and historian Vincent Delcorps observed to I.MEDIA.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, suggested last October that the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba could be a “black mark” in King Baudouin's dossier, given the persistent controversy surrounding Belgium's possible involvement in the elimination of this figure of the independence movement in Congo.