Pope Pressures Bishops to Quit Covering Up Abuse

Pope Francis wrapped up a troubled visit to Belgium on Sunday by doubling down on his traditional views on women and abortion and demanding that Catholic bishops stop covering up for predator priests—a scandal that has devastated the church's credibility around the globe. Francis revisited the thorny topics of his trip during his in-flight press conference coming home, praising Belgium's late King Baudouin as a saint for having abdicated for a day in 1990 rather than sign legislation legalizing abortion. "You need a politician who wears pants to do this," Francis said, using a Spanish expression. "You need courage." He said Baudouin's beatification process was moving along, the AP reports.

Francis drew criticism from some in Belgium for having prayed at Baudouin's tomb and for calling the abortion law "homicidal," given that abortion remains a political issue in Belgium, with new proposals to extend the legal limit on an abortion from 12 to 18 weeks. "Doctors who do this are—allow me the word—hitmen. They are hitmen," Francis said. "And on this you cannot argue. You are killing a human life." On the plane, Francis returned to the women's issues that brought him criticism the day before. He has insisted that women's focus on joining the ordained ministry is misplaced given his claim that they already are more important than men. "I always speak about the dignity of women, and I said something that I can't say about men: The church is woman," Francis said, per the AP.

Before leaving on Sunday, Francis used his only Mass in Belgium to demand that priests who abuse young people be punished, and that the church hierarchy stop covering up their crimes. He praised the courage of victims who came forward. "Evil must be brought out into the open," Francis said to applause from the crowd of some 30,000 at Brussels' King Baudouin stadium. He deviated from his prepared homily to address the meeting he held with 17 abuse survivors on Friday, where he heard of their trauma and the tone-deaf response of the church. Belgium has a wretched legacy of abuse and coverup, symbolized by the case of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe. He was allowed to quietly retire in 2010 after he admitted he had sexually abused his nephew for 13 years. Francis defrocked him this year—14 years later—in a move widely viewed as prompted by his plans to visit Belgium.

(More Pope Francis stories.)