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The stated purpose of the trip has been for the pope to mark the 600th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic University of Leuven. The institution is home to one of the world’s leading theology faculties that has played a role in the education of laypeople after the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
The pope will also meet with the country’s government and church leaders and celebrate a Mass in Brussels that is expected to draw a crowd of more than 35,000 Catholics.
“For Catholics in Belgium, the challenge will not be to show that they are still numerous, but rather that they are still very much alive,” Delcorps told NCR. “This is something Belgian society sometimes tends to forget.”
Delcorps noted that tickets for papal Mass — the first in the country since Pope John Paul II last visited in 1995 — were “sold out” within just a few hours. A Catholic youth festival timed to coincide with the pope’s visit is expected to draw thousands.
Still, there’s no doubt that the country has rapidly secularized in the three decades since it last played host to a pope, due to a mix of both demographic changes and self-inflicted wounds.
Earlier this year, the pope finally laicized a well-known Belgian bishop who had admitted to sexually abusing his nephew 14 years ago. Until March 2024, Roger Vangheluwe had faced no formal Vatican punishment.
Meanwhile, the Flemish parliament recently unanimously adopted a resolution that included more than 100 recommendations in response to clergy sexual abuse.
There is the likelihood of some abuse-related protests while the pope is in Brussels, the Belgian capital.
Lieve Halsberghe, a Belgian advocate for abuse survivors, said she believes that the trip has been organized as a “counter-reaction” to the fallout from the documentary, which exposed decades of abuse and cover-up.
The Belgian bishops have announced that Francis will meet privately with 15 sexual abuse survivors during his visit. But Halsberghe told NCR she believes that the meeting will mostly be symbolic and that the Vatican has little interest in transparency.
“They will only admit a tiny part, but will keep hidden documents and information that victims need to heal,” she said. “Victims need the truth to heal and that is something the Vatican cannot handle.”
As for how this will affect the overall reception of the pope on the trip, Halsberghe said that “most Belgians think Francis is a good pope,” but she said it’s because they only know a fraction of the church’s mishandling of abuse cases.
For his part, Delcorps said he believes the issue of abuse will be very present throughout the trip, but “more analyzed by mainstream media than by Catholics themselves.”
In today’s secular Belgium, Delcorps observed, the local church has become known for its openness on LGBTQ issues and on women’s leadership. Many Catholics will be listening attentively to what the pope might have to say on this front, Delcorps said, and, most importantly, looking to whether Francis — and this visit — will help chart a way out of the church’s current decline.
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 01:44:00
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