BRUSSELS — Pope Francis said Friday that the Catholic Church must “seek forgiveness” over the “scourge” of child sexual abuse, during a visit to Belgium where the Church’s dark past looms large.
In a speech before political and civil society leaders that opened his three-day visit to the country, Francis denounced the “tragic instances of child abuse” as a stain on the Church’s legacy.
“It is our shame and our humiliation,” Francis told the gathering at the Laeken Palace royal residency.
“The Church must be ashamed and must seek forgiveness,” he said.
The 87-year-old pontiff met with a group of clerical sexual assault victims in Brussels in the afternoon, as part of a three-day stay in the European nation tarred by decades of scandals and cover-ups.
The meeting with around 15 victims was held with the “utmost discretion”, according to the Belgian church.
It was arranged after a hard-hitting documentary last year put Belgium’s abuse scandal back on the front pages, prompting many new victims to come forward.
In an open letter published by Le Soir newspaper this month, some demanded the pope address paedophilia and set up a process for financial reparations.
“Words alone are not enough. Concrete measures must also be taken,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a preamble to the pope’s speech.
The pontiff said the abuse scandal was “a scourge that the Church is addressing firmly and decisively by listening to and accompanying those who have been wounded, and by implementing a prevention programme throughout the world”.
Francis has made combating sexual assault in the Church a main mission of his papacy, and insisted on a “zero tolerance” policy in the wake of wide-reaching abuse scandals around the world.
During his speech, Francis also said he was “saddened” to learn about a forced adoptions scandal in Belgium that saw institutions run by nuns give up the babies of thousands of underage girls and unmarried women.
