Belgium's prime minister blasted Pope Francis for the Catholic Church's horrific legacy of clerical sex abuse and cover-ups, demanding "concrete steps" to come clean with the past and put victims' interests ahead those of the institution in a blistering welcome at the start of Francis' visit on Friday. The speech by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was one of the most pointed ever directed at the pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keeps outrage out of the public speeches, the AP reports. But even King Philippe had strong words for Francis, demanding the church work "incessantly" to atone for the crimes and help victims heal.
Their tone underscored just how raw the abuse scandal still is in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have devastated the hierarchy's credibility and contributed to an overall decline in Catholicism and the influence of the once-powerful Catholic Church. Francis applauded at the end of De Croo's speech, and was expected to meet with victims in private later Friday.
- "Today, words alone do not suffice. We also need concrete steps," De Croo said. "Victims need to be heard. They need to be at the center. They have a right to truth. Misdeeds need to be recognized," he said in front of an audience of royals, church officials, diplomats, and politicians at Laeken Castle, the residence of Belgium's royal family. "When something goes wrong we cannot accept cover-ups," he said. "To be able to look into the future, the church needs to come clean on its past."
- The pope also referred to abuse in his remarks, insisting that the church was "addressing firmly and decisively" the problem by implementing prevention programs, listening to victims and accompanying them to heal. But after the astonishing dressing down by the prime minister and king, Francis went off-script to express the shame of the church for the scandal and voice his commitment to ending it. "The church must be ashamed and ask forgiveness and try to resolve this problem, and put all the possibilities in place so that this doesn't happen again," Francis said. "For even one (victim), we must ask forgiveness."
- Victims, however, have demanded the church do far more, including implementing robust reparations programs to compensate them for their trauma and pay for the lifelong therapy many need.
- Revelations of Belgium's horrific abuse scandal have dribbled out in bits over a quarter century, punctuated by a bombshell in 2010, when the country's longest-serving bishop, Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, was allowed to resign without punishment after admitting he had sexually abused his nephew for 13 years. Francis only defrocked Vangheluwe earlier this year, in a move clearly designed to remove a lingering source of outrage among Belgians before his visit.
- Outrage about church sex abuse was reignited last year, when a four-episode Flemish documentary showed Belgian victims telling their stories on camera. For the first time, Flemish viewers at home saw victims explain the scope of the scandal in their community, the depravity of the crimes, and the systematic cover-up by the Catholic hierarchy.
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