“I ask the bishops not to cover up the abuses” AND “to condemn the aggressors and help them heal from this disease,” launched by Pope Francis on Sunday, September 29, during a large mass in the national stadium in Brussels, at the end of a visit that highlighted the growing gap between a part of Belgian Catholics and Rome, in particular in Women’s Square in the Church.
“Evil cannot be hidden, evil must be revealed in broad daylight, whether it is known… whether the aggressor is judged, whether he is a layman or a bishop.”he added, words that were received with three applauses from the stands.
“I think about the stories of many young people I have met” the Pope launched in his homily, stating that he had “I heard the suffering” of the seventeen victims of sexual violence with whom he met on Friday in a context of great expectations. “There is no room for abuse” he added.
During his three-day visit, the first by a Pope to Belgium since John Paul II in 1995, Francis was also questioned about the reception of LGBT+ people and the place of women in the Church, topics that highlighted the strong expectations . of Belgian Catholics in the face of a doctrine considered by some to be too outdated.
On Saturday, his response on the place of women sometimes sparked disappointment and incomprehension within the Catholic University of Leuven, which criticized him in a press release. “a reductionist position”.
“I don’t understand why women can’t be priests. It is something that was established because it was anchored in the society of that time, but now we have evolved.”Alice Vanwijnsberghe, an 18-year-old student from Leuven, who came to Mass after attending a festival with 6,000 young Catholics, told Agence France-Presse.
However, he recognizes that the issue is “delicate and complicated”, “Because many times it can also create a schism in the Church”. The Pope must leave Brussels at noon and give his traditional press conference on board the plane that will take him back to Rome, where he is expected around 3:00 p.m.
