In Belgium, the Pope asks for support for victims of abuse, which he stressed is “the shame and humiliation of the Church”
This Saturday, Pope Francis asked the Belgian Church for efforts to make victims of abuse feel close and offer them all possible help, during a meeting with the country’s clergy, in Brussels.
The Pope arrived in Belgium on Thursday, a country shaken by decades of cases of sexual abuse of children by members of the Church and a cover-up by superiors, which until now has marked the pontiff’s visit.
Francis had said on Friday that abuse is “the shame and humiliation” of the church and that only “forgiveness must be asked”, meeting with 17 victims for more than two hours.
The “shock” after a bishop’s confession of abuse
“After the confession of abuse by a bishop (Roger Vangheluwe), the social shock was great. There followed an avalanche of complaints from victims who declared, sometimes for the first time in their lives, that they had been abused as children by a priest or religious. Like many citizens, we were horrified, sad and helpless. We also felt shocked and ashamed as believers,” politician Mia De Schamphelaere, who represents victims’ aid centers, told Pope Francis.
Francisco thanked the centers for their work “in transforming anger and pain into help, closeness and compassion.”
“Abuse generates atrocious suffering and wounds, even undermining the path of faith. And it takes a lot of mercy not to be left with a heart of stone in the face of the victims’ suffering, to make them feel our closeness and offer them all the possible help, to learn from them how to be a church that becomes a servant of all, without subjugating anyone”, he said.
He added that, behind the violence, “is the abuse of power, when we use our roles to crush or manipulate others.”
He also heard the testimony of a priest who works in prisons and said that “no one is lost forever”.
“It is correct, then, to follow the paths of earthly justice and human, psychological and penal itineraries; but punishment must be a medicine, it must lead to healing. People need to be helped to get back on their feet and find their way in life and society”, he stated.
