Pope Francis explained to the Belgian authorities that the Catholic Church is “holy and sinful” at the same time; He regretted the forced adoptions of the past and also denounced the abuse of minors, a “shame and humiliation” for which the Church must ask forgiveness.
This morning, on his first day in Belgium, Pope Francis traveled by car at 9:00 a.m. to Laeken Castle, after celebrating Holy Mass in private, for the courtesy visit to King Philip and Queen Matilda.
An honor guard on horseback accompanied him to the main entrance of the castle, where he was received by the Belgian Royalty.
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After the official photos and the signing in the Book of Honor, a private meeting was held followed by an exchange of gifts. At the end of the visit, Pope Francis, the King and Queen move to the Large Gallery of the Castle of Laeken for the meeting with the authorities.
In his welcoming words, King Felipe highlighted Pope Francis’s denunciation of the abuses committed within the Church and also thanked him for his concrete actions to help the victims.
Belgium’s role in Europe
During his inaugural speech, after thanking the King for his welcome, Pope Francis highlighted the geographical position of the country, western and at the same time central, “as if it were the beating heart of a giant system.”
He also defined it as “a bridge,” which allows “concord to expand and controversies to dissipate,” being indispensable “to build peace and repudiate war.”
In this sense, he highlighted the need that Europe has for Belgium “to remind itself of its history” and to carry forward “the path of peace and fraternity among the peoples that form it.”
“In this historic moment, I think Belgium has a very important role. “We are close to an almost global war,” he highlighted.
“Make children!”
Concord and peace, the Pontiff noted, “are not a conquest that is achieved once and for all, but a task and a mission that must be cultivated incessantly, treated with tenacity and patience.”
“The human being, in fact, when he stops remembering the past, depriving himself of its teaching, has the disconcerting capacity to fall again, even after having risen, forgetting the sufferings and the terrifying cost of past generations.” , he added.
I urge that Europe once again have “its true face” and open itself to life and hope, “to defeat the demographic winter and the hell of war.”
“There are two calamities at this moment. The hell of war, we are seeing, which can transform into a world war. And the demographic winter. With this we must be practical. “Make children, make children!” he exclaimed.
The Church, “holy and sinful”
He then expressed that the Catholic Church wants to be a presence that, bearing witness to its faith in the risen Christ, offers “a presence that helps everyone face challenges and trials, without volatile enthusiasms or gloomy pessimisms, but with certainty.” that the human being, loved by God, has an eternal vocation of peace and good, and is not destined for dissolution or nothingness.”
“With her gaze fixed on Jesus, the Church always recognizes herself as a disciple, who with fear and trembling follows her Master, recognizing herself as holy in that she was founded by Him and, at the same time, fragile and insufficient in her members, always lacking and overcome. for the task that has been entrusted to him,” he added.
He also stressed that the Church “announces News that can fill hearts with joy and, with works of charity and countless testimonies of love for others, seeks to provide concrete signs and proofs of the love that moves her.”
Later, Pope Francis noted that the Church is “holy and sinful,” and that she lives “in this permanent coexistence between lights and shadows,” often with results “of great generosity and splendid dedication, and sometimes, unfortunately, with “irruption of painful anti-testimonies”.
The shame of child abuse
“I think of the dramatic cases of abuse of minors, a scourge that the Church is facing with determination and firmness, listening to and accompanying injured people and implementing a broad prevention program throughout the world,” he highlighted.
For the Holy Father, the abuse of minors represents “the shame that today, all of us must take control, ask for forgiveness and solve the problem.”
Pope Francis compared the abuses with what was done by Herod in the time of the innocent saints and asserted that “the Church must be ashamed, ask for forgiveness, try to resolve this situation with Christian humility and do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen again.” ”.
He also specified that, although statistics indicate that the vast majority of abuses occur in families, in the neighborhood or in the world of sports and at school, “if there is just one, it is enough to be ashamed.”
“In the Church we must ask for forgiveness for this, and for others to ask for forgiveness for their part. “This is our shame and our humiliation,” he confirmed.
Regrets the phenomenon of forced adoptions
He also made reference to the phenomenon of “forced adoptions”, also present in Belgium between the 50s and 70s of the last century, something that according to the Pontiff “continues to occur today in some countries and cultures.”
“In those thorny stories the bitter fruit of a crime and an offense was mixed with what was unfortunately the result of a mentality widespread in all strata of society; to the point that those who acted according to that mentality, consciously thought that they were doing good, both for the child and for the mother,” he explained.
He specified that, frequently, families and other social entities, including the Church, thought that, “to remove the negative stigma, which unfortunately in those times affected those who were single mothers, it would be better for both, mother and child, that the latter was adopted.”
“There were even cases in which some women were not given the opportunity to decide whether to keep the child or give it up for adoption,” she lamented.
As successor of the apostle Peter, he begged the Lord “so that the Church always finds within itself the strength to act clearly 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 illegitimate conclusions from them, with their consequent burdens of suffering and exclusion.”
“I pray that they fear the judgment of conscience, of history and of God, and convert their eyes and hearts, always putting the common good first,” he continued.
“Hope is a gift from God”
The Holy Father wanted to conclude his speech with hope, which, he specified, “is not something that you carry in your backpack along the way, no, hope is a gift from God that never disappoints and is carried in the heart.” .
“And so I want to leave you this wish of hope, to you and to all the men and women who live in Belgium: that you may always ask for and receive this gift of the Holy Spirit, to walk together with Hope on the path of life and history. ”Pope Francis concluded.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
I am a graduate in Journalism and Advertising from the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. I have been a senior correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in the Vatican for two years and I am currently a European correspondent based in Spain.