BRUSSELS (BELGIUM)
Associated Press [New York NY]
September 29, 2024
By Nicole Winfield and Raf Casert
Pope Francis demanded Sunday that sexually abusive clergy be judged and their bishops stop covering up their crimes as he ended a troubled visit to Belgium by responding to the outrage over the scandal here that has devastated the church’s credibility.
“Evil must not be hidden. Evil must be brought out into the open,” Francis told some 30,000 people at Belgium’s sports stadium, drawing applause repeatedly as the crowd took in what he was saying.
Francis deviated from his prepared homily to respond to the meeting he held with 17 abuse survivors on Friday night, where he heard first-hand of the trauma and suffering they endured and the tone-deaf response of the church when they reported the crimes.
Belgium has had a wretched legacy of abuse and cover-up, none more symbolic of the church’s hypocrisy than the case of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe. He was allowed to quietly retire in 2010 after he admitted that he had sexually abused his nephew for 13 years.
Francis only defrocked him this year — 14 years later — in a move clearly seen as finally dealing with a problem before his arrival in Belgium.