Pope Francis on Abuse says the "Church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness and try to resolve this situation with Christian humility." in Belgium
APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCISTO LUXEMBOURG AND BELGIUM - (26-29 September 2024)
Pope Francis noted Belgium’s place in the centre of Europe as he meets with the country's civil authorities, and denounces clerical sexual abuse as "the Church's shame." During his address to civil authorities on his first full day in Belgium, Pope Francis praised Belgium as a bridge “between the continent and the British Isles, between the Germanic-and French-speaking regions, between southern and northern Europe.” Belgium is “a bridge enabling concord to spread, and disputes to abate”. Europe needs Belgium, he continued, to remind it of its history of peoples and cultures, cathedrals and universities, but also of darker periods of war, colonialism and exploitation.
MEETING WITH THE AUTHORITIES AND CIVIL SOCIETY
FULL TEXT ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER, POPE FRANCIS
Castle of Laeken (Brussels) on Friday, 27 September 2024
___________________________
Your Majesties, Mr. Prime Minister, Brother Bishops,
Distinguished Authorities, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I thank Your Majesty for the cordial welcome and for the courteous greeting. I am very pleased to visit Belgium. When one thinks of this country, one conjures up something small and large at the same time, a Western country and at the same time central, as if it were the beating heart of a gigantic organism.
In fact, proportions and order of magnitudes are deceiving. Belgium is not a very large state, but its peculiar history meant that, immediately after the end of the Second World War, the European peoples, tired and exhausted, starting a serious path of pacification, collaboration and integration, looked to Belgium as the natural seat of the main European institutions.
Due to the fact that it was on the fault line between the Germanic world and the Latin world, bordering France and Germany, which had most embodied the nationalistic antitheses at the base of the conflict, it appeared as an ideal place, almost a synthesis of Europe, from which to start again for its reconstruction, physical, moral and spiritual.
It seems that Belgium is a bridge: between the continent and the British Isles, between the Germanic and French-speaking areas, between the south and the north of Europe. A bridge, to allow harmony to expand and to make controversies retreat. A bridge where each person, with their own language, mentality and beliefs, meets the other and chooses the word, dialogue, sharing as means to relate. A place where one learns to make one's identity not an idol or a barrier, but a hospitable space from which to start and return, where to promote valid exchanges and seek together new balances, build new syntheses. Belgium is a bridge that favors trade, puts civilizations in communication and dialogue. A bridge therefore indispensable for building peace and repudiating war.
It is easy to understand then how great little Belgium is! It is clear how Europe needs it to remind itself of its history, made up of peoples and cultures, cathedrals and universities, conquests of human ingenuity, but also of so many wars and a desire for domination that has sometimes become colonialism and exploitation.
Europe needs Belgium to continue the path of peace and brotherhood among the peoples that compose it. This country reminds all the others that, when - on the basis of the most varied and unsustainable excuses - we begin to no longer respect borders and treaties and we leave the right to create law to weapons, subverting the existing one, Pandora's box is opened and all the winds begin to blow violently, shaking the house and threatening to destroy it. In this historical moment I believe that Belgium has a very important role. We are close to an almost world war.
Concord and peace, in fact, are not a conquest that is achieved once and for all, but rather a task and a mission - concord and peace are a task and a mission -, an incessant mission to cultivate, to care for with tenacity and patience. In fact, the human being, when he stops remembering the past and letting himself be taught by it, possesses the disconcerting ability to fall again even after he had finally gotten up, forgetting the suffering and the frightening costs paid by previous generations. In this, memory does not work, it is curious, there are other forces, both in society and in people, that make us always fall into the same things.
In this sense, Belgium is more precious than ever for the memory of the European continent. In fact, it provides irrefutable arguments to develop a constant and timely, courageous and at the same time prudent, cultural, social and political action, which excludes a future in which the idea and practice of war once again become a viable option, with catastrophic consequences.
History, a magistra vitae too often unheard, calls Europe from Belgium to resume its path, to rediscover its true face, to invest again in the future by opening up to life, to hope, to defeat the demographic winter and the hell of war! They are two calamities at this moment. The hell of war, we are seeing, which can turn into a world war. And the demographic winter; for this we must be practical: have children, have children!
The Catholic Church wants to be a presence that, bearing witness to its faith in the Risen Christ, offers people, families, societies and nations an ancient and ever new hope; a presence that helps everyone to face challenges and trials, without facile enthusiasm or dark pessimism, but with the certainty that the human being, loved by God, has an eternal vocation of peace and goodness and is not destined for dissolution and nothingness.
Keeping her gaze fixed on Jesus, the Church always recognizes herself as the disciple, who with fear and trembling follows her Master, knowing that she is holy in that she was constituted by Him and at the same time fragile - holy and sinful - and lacking in her members, never completely adequate to the task entrusted to her that always surpasses her.
She announces a News that can fill hearts with joy and, with works of charity and countless testimonies of love for others, seeks to offer concrete signs and proof of the love that moves her. However, it lives in the concreteness of the cultures and mentalities of a given era, which it helps to shape or which in some way it sometimes suffers; and it does not always understand and live the evangelical message in its purity and completeness. The Church is holy and sinful.
In this perennial coexistence between holiness and sin, of light and shadow, the Church lives, often with results of great generosity and splendid dedication, and sometimes unfortunately with the emergence of painful counter-testimonies. I think of the dramatic events of child abuse – to which the King and the Prime Minister referred –, a plague that the Church is addressing with determination and firmness, listening to and accompanying the wounded people and implementing a widespread prevention program throughout the world.
Brothers and sisters, this is the shame! The shame that today we must all take in hand and ask for forgiveness and resolve the problem: the shame of abuse, of child abuse. We think of the time of the Holy Innocents and say: “Oh what a tragedy, what King Herod did!”, but today in the Church there is this crime; the Church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness and try to resolve this situation with Christian humility. And put all the conditions so that this never happens again. Someone says to me: “Your Holiness, think that according to statistics the great majority of abuses occur in the family or in the neighborhood or in the world of sports, in school”. Just one is enough to be ashamed! In the Church we must ask forgiveness for this; the others ask forgiveness for their part. This is our shame and our humiliation.
I was saddened – in this regard – by another phenomenon: the “forced adoptions”, which also occurred here in Belgium between the 50s and 70s of the last century. In those thorny stories, the bitter fruit of a crime and an offense was mixed with what was unfortunately the outcome of a mentality widespread in all strata of society, so much so that those who acted on the basis of it believed in conscience that they were doing good, both for the child and for the mother. Often the family and other social actors, including the Church, thought that in order to remove the negative stigma, which unfortunately in those times affected the unmarried mother, it was preferable for the good of both, mother and child, that the latter be adopted. There were even cases in which some women were not given the opportunity to choose whether to keep the child or give it up for adoption. And this happens today in some cultures, in some countries.
As the successor of the Apostle Peter, I pray to the Lord that the Church always find within itself the strength to clarify and not to conform to the dominant culture, even when that culture uses – manipulating them – values that derive from the Gospel, but only to draw undue conclusions, with their heavy outcome of suffering and exclusion.
I pray that the leaders of nations, looking at Belgium and its history, will learn from it and thus save their people from endless misfortunes and countless losses. I pray that governments will take on the responsibility, risk and honor of peace and will ward off the hazard, ignominy and absurdity of war. I pray that they will fear the judgment of conscience, history and God, and will convert their gaze and hearts, always putting the common good first. At this time when the economy has developed so much, I would like to point out that in some countries the investments that generate the most income are weapons factories.
Your Majesties, Ladies and Gentlemen, the motto of this visit to your country is “En route, avec Espérance”. The fact that Espérance is written with a capital letter makes me think: it tells me that hope is not a thing that you carry in your backpack along the way; no, hope is a gift from God, perhaps it is the humblest virtue – said the writer – but it is the one that never fails, never disappoints. Hope is a gift from God and is carried in the heart! And so I want to leave this wish to you and to all the men and women who live in Belgium: may you always ask for and welcome this gift from the Holy Spirit, hope, to walk together with Hope on the road of life and history. Thank you!
Source: Vatican.va Bulletin
MEETING WITH THE AUTHORITIES AND CIVIL SOCIETY
FULL TEXT ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER, POPE FRANCIS
Castle of Laeken (Brussels) on Friday, 27 September 2024
___________________________
Your Majesties, Mr. Prime Minister, Brother Bishops,
Distinguished Authorities, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I thank Your Majesty for the cordial welcome and for the courteous greeting. I am very pleased to visit Belgium. When one thinks of this country, one conjures up something small and large at the same time, a Western country and at the same time central, as if it were the beating heart of a gigantic organism.
In fact, proportions and order of magnitudes are deceiving. Belgium is not a very large state, but its peculiar history meant that, immediately after the end of the Second World War, the European peoples, tired and exhausted, starting a serious path of pacification, collaboration and integration, looked to Belgium as the natural seat of the main European institutions.
Due to the fact that it was on the fault line between the Germanic world and the Latin world, bordering France and Germany, which had most embodied the nationalistic antitheses at the base of the conflict, it appeared as an ideal place, almost a synthesis of Europe, from which to start again for its reconstruction, physical, moral and spiritual.
It seems that Belgium is a bridge: between the continent and the British Isles, between the Germanic and French-speaking areas, between the south and the north of Europe. A bridge, to allow harmony to expand and to make controversies retreat. A bridge where each person, with their own language, mentality and beliefs, meets the other and chooses the word, dialogue, sharing as means to relate. A place where one learns to make one's identity not an idol or a barrier, but a hospitable space from which to start and return, where to promote valid exchanges and seek together new balances, build new syntheses. Belgium is a bridge that favors trade, puts civilizations in communication and dialogue. A bridge therefore indispensable for building peace and repudiating war.
It is easy to understand then how great little Belgium is! It is clear how Europe needs it to remind itself of its history, made up of peoples and cultures, cathedrals and universities, conquests of human ingenuity, but also of so many wars and a desire for domination that has sometimes become colonialism and exploitation.
Europe needs Belgium to continue the path of peace and brotherhood among the peoples that compose it. This country reminds all the others that, when - on the basis of the most varied and unsustainable excuses - we begin to no longer respect borders and treaties and we leave the right to create law to weapons, subverting the existing one, Pandora's box is opened and all the winds begin to blow violently, shaking the house and threatening to destroy it. In this historical moment I believe that Belgium has a very important role. We are close to an almost world war.
Concord and peace, in fact, are not a conquest that is achieved once and for all, but rather a task and a mission - concord and peace are a task and a mission -, an incessant mission to cultivate, to care for with tenacity and patience. In fact, the human being, when he stops remembering the past and letting himself be taught by it, possesses the disconcerting ability to fall again even after he had finally gotten up, forgetting the suffering and the frightening costs paid by previous generations. In this, memory does not work, it is curious, there are other forces, both in society and in people, that make us always fall into the same things.
In this sense, Belgium is more precious than ever for the memory of the European continent. In fact, it provides irrefutable arguments to develop a constant and timely, courageous and at the same time prudent, cultural, social and political action, which excludes a future in which the idea and practice of war once again become a viable option, with catastrophic consequences.
History, a magistra vitae too often unheard, calls Europe from Belgium to resume its path, to rediscover its true face, to invest again in the future by opening up to life, to hope, to defeat the demographic winter and the hell of war! They are two calamities at this moment. The hell of war, we are seeing, which can turn into a world war. And the demographic winter; for this we must be practical: have children, have children!
The Catholic Church wants to be a presence that, bearing witness to its faith in the Risen Christ, offers people, families, societies and nations an ancient and ever new hope; a presence that helps everyone to face challenges and trials, without facile enthusiasm or dark pessimism, but with the certainty that the human being, loved by God, has an eternal vocation of peace and goodness and is not destined for dissolution and nothingness.
Keeping her gaze fixed on Jesus, the Church always recognizes herself as the disciple, who with fear and trembling follows her Master, knowing that she is holy in that she was constituted by Him and at the same time fragile - holy and sinful - and lacking in her members, never completely adequate to the task entrusted to her that always surpasses her.
She announces a News that can fill hearts with joy and, with works of charity and countless testimonies of love for others, seeks to offer concrete signs and proof of the love that moves her. However, it lives in the concreteness of the cultures and mentalities of a given era, which it helps to shape or which in some way it sometimes suffers; and it does not always understand and live the evangelical message in its purity and completeness. The Church is holy and sinful.
In this perennial coexistence between holiness and sin, of light and shadow, the Church lives, often with results of great generosity and splendid dedication, and sometimes unfortunately with the emergence of painful counter-testimonies. I think of the dramatic events of child abuse – to which the King and the Prime Minister referred –, a plague that the Church is addressing with determination and firmness, listening to and accompanying the wounded people and implementing a widespread prevention program throughout the world.
Brothers and sisters, this is the shame! The shame that today we must all take in hand and ask for forgiveness and resolve the problem: the shame of abuse, of child abuse. We think of the time of the Holy Innocents and say: “Oh what a tragedy, what King Herod did!”, but today in the Church there is this crime; the Church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness and try to resolve this situation with Christian humility. And put all the conditions so that this never happens again. Someone says to me: “Your Holiness, think that according to statistics the great majority of abuses occur in the family or in the neighborhood or in the world of sports, in school”. Just one is enough to be ashamed! In the Church we must ask forgiveness for this; the others ask forgiveness for their part. This is our shame and our humiliation.
I was saddened – in this regard – by another phenomenon: the “forced adoptions”, which also occurred here in Belgium between the 50s and 70s of the last century. In those thorny stories, the bitter fruit of a crime and an offense was mixed with what was unfortunately the outcome of a mentality widespread in all strata of society, so much so that those who acted on the basis of it believed in conscience that they were doing good, both for the child and for the mother. Often the family and other social actors, including the Church, thought that in order to remove the negative stigma, which unfortunately in those times affected the unmarried mother, it was preferable for the good of both, mother and child, that the latter be adopted. There were even cases in which some women were not given the opportunity to choose whether to keep the child or give it up for adoption. And this happens today in some cultures, in some countries.
As the successor of the Apostle Peter, I pray to the Lord that the Church always find within itself the strength to clarify and not to conform to the dominant culture, even when that culture uses – manipulating them – values that derive from the Gospel, but only to draw undue conclusions, with their heavy outcome of suffering and exclusion.
I pray that the leaders of nations, looking at Belgium and its history, will learn from it and thus save their people from endless misfortunes and countless losses. I pray that governments will take on the responsibility, risk and honor of peace and will ward off the hazard, ignominy and absurdity of war. I pray that they will fear the judgment of conscience, history and God, and will convert their gaze and hearts, always putting the common good first. At this time when the economy has developed so much, I would like to point out that in some countries the investments that generate the most income are weapons factories.
Your Majesties, Ladies and Gentlemen, the motto of this visit to your country is “En route, avec Espérance”. The fact that Espérance is written with a capital letter makes me think: it tells me that hope is not a thing that you carry in your backpack along the way; no, hope is a gift from God, perhaps it is the humblest virtue – said the writer – but it is the one that never fails, never disappoints. Hope is a gift from God and is carried in the heart! And so I want to leave this wish to you and to all the men and women who live in Belgium: may you always ask for and welcome this gift from the Holy Spirit, hope, to walk together with Hope on the road of life and history. Thank you!
Source: Vatican.va Bulletin
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