Pope Strongly Criticized in Belgium after His Departure

Asked on the plane back from Belgium on September 29, 2024, about his tribute to King Baudouin (1930-1993), the Pope repeated that he had been courageous. In 1990, in order not to sign the law on abortion that had been passed by the chambers, he abdicated for 36 hours. Which, while it is perhaps noble, is insufficient...

The Pope affirmed, “He did it because he was a saint. He is holy and the beatification process will continue,” he continued. This took the bishops by surprise, according to the cath.ch news agency. Bishop Guy Harpigny of Tournai confided that “the bishops have never asked for the beatification of King Baudouin.” The same bishop even found the Pope's language against abortion doctors “a little strong.”

On the subject of abortion itself, Francis recalled that “abortion is murder.” In front of the King’s tomb, he “urged Belgians to look to him at a time when criminal laws are being enacted,” Vatican News reports, referring to laws in favor of abortion—lengthening the time cutoff—and euthanasia.

On the plane, he once again referred to doctors who perform abortions as “hitmen,” insisting that “This cannot be disputed. A human life is killed.” He stressed that “Women have the right to life: to their own lives and the lives of their children.”

Reactions in Belgium

During questions to the government, several female MPs “returned to statements made by Francis on Belgian soil and on the plane back to Rome” concerning abortion, according to the website Cathobel. One of them described the comparison between abortion doctors and contract killers as “totally out of place on International Safe Abortion Day.”

Another denounced the Pope's lack of respect “towards democracy, the medical profession, and the freedom of women to make their own choices,” asking the Prime Minister if he could guarantee “the separation between Church and State”? Yet another demanded that the Nuncio be summoned to denounce the remarks made by the Head of the Church.

The Prime Minister's response was to be expected: “The Pope has made certain statements that are not acceptable,” he said regretfully, according to Cathobel. He insisted: “We have no lessons to learn about the way our parliamentarians democratically pass laws,” adding that “the time when the Church dictated the law in our country is, fortunately, long behind us.”

He then demanded “respect” for doctors, but also “for women, who must be able to freely dispose of their bodies without interference from the Church.” Finally, he announced that he had “invited the Apostolic Nuncio to a meeting.”

As for Bishop Harpigny, he had nothing better to say than that the Pope “has no business commenting on what happens in Belgium at the Parliamentary level. That's not for him,” he concluded. Even if Parliament voted to suppress the Church in Belgium, for example? Really, no comment?

This episode reminds us that proclaiming the truth is not without its contradictions, which the disciple of Jesus Christ must be ready to face. Evil is always evil, even when it's voted for by parliamentarians, and especially when it's voted for by elected representatives, because then it is like being released and committed by a crowd who had no access to it. Their responsibility before God is enormous. It's charity to remind them of this.