Pope Francis has promised to “offer all the help we can” to victims of clergy sexual abuse after people in Belgium told him first-hand of the trauma that shattered their lives and left many in poverty and mental misery.
Francis’s visit to Belgium has been dominated by the abuse scandal, with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo both condemning the Catholic Church’s dreadful legacy of priests raping and molesting children and its decades-long cover-up of the crimes.
Francis met for more than two hours on Friday with 17 survivors who are seeking compensation from the church for the trauma they suffered and to pay for the therapy many need. They said they gave Francis a month to study their demands.
“There are so many victims. There are also so many victims who are still completely broke,” survivor Koen Van Sumere told The Associated Press. “I have also been lucky enough to get a diploma and build a life for myself. But there are so many people who are completely broke and who need help and who cannot afford it and who really need urgent help now.”
Mr Van Sumere said he was encouraged by the “positive” meeting with the pope but was waiting to see what comes of it.
On Saturday, during a meeting with Belgian clergy and nuns at the Koekelberg Basilica, Francis acknowledged that abuse had created “atrocious suffering and wounds” and undermined the faith.
“There is a need for a great deal of mercy to keep us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims so that we can help them feel our closeness and offer all the help we can,” he said.
“We must learn from them … to be a church at the service of all without belittling anyone. Indeed, one of the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power when we use the positions we have to crush or manipulate others.”
Francis started the day by having breakfast — coffee and croissants — with a group of 10 homeless people and migrants who are looked after by the St Gilles parish of Brussels.
They sat around a table at the entrance to the parish church and told him their stories, and gave him bottles of beer that the parish makes called La Biche Saint Gilles. The proceeds of the beer sales help fund the parish’s charity works.
Francis thanked them for the beer and breakfast and told them that the church’s true wealth was in caring for the weakest.
“If we want to truly know and show the church’s beauty, we should give to one another like this, in our smallness, in our poverty, without pretexts and with much love.”
The breakfast encounter was presided over by Marie-Francoise Boveroulle, an adjunct episcopal vicar for the diocese. The position is usually filled by a priest but Ms Boveroulle’s appointment has been highlighted as evidence of the roles that women can and should play in the church.
