Pope Francis was straightforward on the issues that plague Belgium's Catholic Church while addressing the King, Queen and other authorities in the Belgian royal castle.
His address included nearly two minutes of speaking off-script about sexual abuse in the Church, where, in Belgium, more than 700 reports of abuse have been filed since 2012.
The Pope's address also comes just six months after he defrocked a former Bishop in Belgium found guilty of abuse.
POPE FRANCIS
Someone says to me, Your Holiness, according to statistics, the vast majority of abuse happens in families, in the neighborhood, in the world of sports, school. Only one is enough to be ashamed. In the Church, we have to ask for forgiveness of that and the others need to ask on their side. This is our shame and humiliation.
But sexual abuse isn't the only issue the Pope spoke out about.
Last year, an investigation estimated that between 1950 and 1980, Belgian Catholic nuns were invovled in “forcibly adopting” nearly 30,000 children. Most cases involved unmarried women whose parents wanted to keep their pregnancy a secret, so their newborn was taken from them without consent and given to a different family.
POPE FRANCIS
In those poignant stories, we see how the bitter fruit of wrongdoing and criminality was mixed in with what was, unfortunately, the prevailing view in all parts of society at that time. This was so much the case that many believed in conscience that they were doing something good for both the child and the mother.
Before closing his address to the political leaders, the Pope urged them to learn from Belgium's history in order to move forward towards common good.
AT
