Pope Francis defends his desire to beatify Baldwin, the Belgian king who resigned for opposing abortion

King Baudouin was brave because he preferred to resign rather than sign a death law, Pope Francis has expressed when defending his desire to beatify the Belgian monarch, who in 1990 temporarily resigned so as not to endorse the legalization of abortion.

During the mass he celebrated this Sunday in Brussels, the Pontiff expressed his intention to begin the cause for the beatification of King Baudouin. “May he, in his example as a man of faith, enlighten the rulers,” said the Holy Father, and asked “that the Belgian bishops commit themselves to carrying forward this cause.”

Likewise, on Saturday he visited the tomb of the Belgian monarch and praised his bravery when he decided to “leave his position as king to avoid signing a murderous law.”

However, during the flight back to Rome, one of the journalists told the Pope that some have seen this “as political interference in the democratic life of Belgium.”

In 1990 the Belgian Parliament had approved the decriminalization of abortion, however, King Baudouin stated that he was not going to sign a law that was opposed to his Catholic convictions, even though he was obliged to sign it.

Given this, it was decided to resort to article 82 of the Constitution, with which on April 3 he was declared temporarily incapable of exercising his functions as monarch.

The Council of Ministers approved the law and on April 5, Parliament voted in favor of the monarch resuming his duties.

In his response, Pope Francis stated that “the king was brave because, faced with a law of death, he did not sign and resign. That takes courage, right? It takes a politician ‘in pants’ to do that. It takes courage.”

“He also gave a message with this and he also did it because he was a saint. He is not yet a saint, but the beatification process will continue, because we have had proof of it,” he said.

During the press conference, the journalist also asked the Pontiff how the right to life, the defense of life, and also the right of women to have a life without suffering could be reconciled.

“Women have the right to life,” Francis stated, “to their life, to the life of their children. Let us not forget to say this: an abortion is murder. Science tells you that in the month of conception all the organs are already there… You kill a human being. And the doctors who lend themselves to this are – allow me the word – hitmen. “They are hitmen.”

The Holy Father pointed out that “it cannot be discussed” because “a human life is killed. And women have the right to protect life.”

“Another thing is contraceptive methods. There is no need to confuse. Now I only talk about abortion. And that cannot be debated. Excuse me, but it’s the truth,” he said.

The condemnation of sexual abuse

During the return flight, Pope Francis was also consulted about sexual abuse and the need to create a department in the Vatican to look at these problems.

Given this, the Pontiff recalled that since 2014 there has been the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minorschaired by Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, “and all things are received in the Vatican and discussed.”

Likewise, he pointed out that he has also received victims of abuse – as happened in Belgium – and that it is a duty to listen to them.

“Some say: statistics say that 40-42-46% of those abused are in the family and in the neighborhood, only 3% in the Church. That doesn’t matter to me, I stay with those who are in the Church! We have the responsibility to help the abused and take care of them,” he said.

Pope Francis also reiterated that it is necessary to punish abusers. “It is a psychiatric illness and that is why we have to put them in treatment and control them like that,” he indicated.

In that sense, he stated that “an abuser cannot be left free in normal life, with responsibilities in parishes and schools.” “I told the Belgian bishops not to be afraid and to move forward. Shame is covering oneself, that is the shame,” he added.

Women and the statement from the Catholic University of Leuven

Another topic addressed during the flight was the statement from the Catholic University of Louvain that deplores “the conservative positions” expressed by Pope Francis “on the place of women in society.”

The text made reference to the meeting that the Pontiff had on Saturday with the students in the Aula Magna of the university. For the study center, the Holy Father’s words are “deterministic and restrictive” about women by linking them to motherhood.

In his response, the Pope warned that the university’s statement “was made at the time I was speaking. “It was done beforehand and this is not moral.”

Then he recalled that “I always talk about the dignity of women” and that “masculinizing women is not human, it is not Christian.”

“The feminine has its own strength. In fact, women – I always say it – are more important than men, because the Church is a woman, the Church is the wife of Jesus. If this seems conservative to those ladies, I am Carlo Gardell (famous Argentine tango singer, ed.). “It is not understood,” he said.

“I see that there is an obtuse mind that does not want to hear about this,” he added.

The conflict in the Middle East

Finally, another question was about the conflict in the Middle East, with the growing confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, with thousands of displaced people in southern Lebanon. “Do you think Israel has gone further against Lebanon and Gaza? And how can this be resolved? Is there a message for the people there?” were the queries to the Pontiff.

Given this, Pope Francis said that every day he calls the only Catholic parish that exists in Gaza, in whose facilities there are more than 600 people “and they tell me the things that happen, even the cruelties that occur there.”

“What they tell me I don’t really understand how things have been. But the defense must always be proportional to the attack. “When there is something disproportionate, it shows a dominant tendency that goes beyond morality.”

“A country that does these things with its forces – I mean any country -, that does these things in such a ‘superlative’ way, are immoral actions. Even in war there is a morality to protect. War is immoral, but the rules of war imply a certain morality. But when this is not done, you see – we say in Argentina – ‘bad blood’,” he said.