“I ask everyone, the bishops, not to hide the abuses, to condemn the aggressors and to help them heal from this disease,” launched the sovereign pontiff in Belgium.
:quality(50)/2023/07/06/64a68815cd1a7_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2024/09/29/000-36hc98c-66f932a254a15556045581.jpg)
He had met victims two days earlier. Pope Francis called for not hiding sexual violence within the Church, Sunday September 29, on the last day of a visit to Belgium. “I ask everyone, the bishops, not to cover up the abuse, to condemn the aggressors and to help them heal from this disease”he told the faithful in the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels.
In his homily, the pope said he had “heard the suffering” of the 17 victims of sexual violence he met on Friday against a backdrop of high expectations. “Evil cannot be hidden, evil must be brought out into the open, let it be known (…) that the aggressor be judged, whether he is a layman or a bishop”he added. Words greeted by three rounds of applause in the stands.
On Friday, he declared that theCatholic Church should “be ashamed and ask for forgiveness” for sexual violence committed by the clergy in Belgium, particularly against minors. “The Church must (…) seek to resolve this situation with Christian humility and do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen again”he added.
During his three-day visit, the first by a pope to Belgium since John Paul II in 1995, the sovereign pontiff was also questioned about the reception of LGBT+ people and the place of women in the Church. Themes which highlighted the strong expectations of Belgian Catholics in the face of a doctrine considered too outdated by some.