The Pope is having a tough day in Belgium, facing a sharp blow on many fronts

ROME – At the beginning of his long weekend trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, Pope Francis told reporters on the papal plane that he was going to skip the customary bus ride to greet them all, saying he was too tired. The decision was made after Francis canceled several audiences earlier this week due to what the Vatican called a cold.

You can bet Friday in Belgium didn’t help the pope’s mood either, as it was one of the more difficult days he’s had traveling in a long time.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo scolded Francis over the sexual abuse scandals in the church. Rector Luc Sels of the Catholic University of Leuven was also there, giving a call for women to the priesthood, to which Francis had already responded with a firm “no,” and also urging the Church to be even more open to the LGBTQ+ community.

And in remarks to reporters, Benedict Lemley, dean of the faculty of theology at Leuven, casually stated that the Church’s divorce from “universal truths” could be a problem at a Catholic university that seeks to be “critically loyal” to the faith.

Even the pope’s meeting late Friday evening with a group of survivors of sexual abuse, intended as a gesture of pastoral sensitivity, drew the ire of one support group, which described the session as mere “damage control.”

All in all, it was not an easy day to represent an institutional religion in one of the most secular societies in the world – and all this was compounded by the fact that it was a cold and rainy day in Brussels, which added to the somewhat gloomy atmosphere.

Through it all, Francis continued his message, emphasizing that the Church “never conforms to the dominant culture, even if that culture uses in a manipulative way the values ​​taken from the Gospel, drawing from it inauthentic conclusions that cause suffering and exclusion.”

The day began with Francis meeting King Philip and Queen Matilda, followed by a meeting with De Croo, who is currently acting as protector until a new government is formed.

If this was his swan song, De Croo seemed determined to make the most of it.

“We cannot ignore the painful wounds that exist in the Catholic community and civil society,” he told the pope. “Numerous cases of sexual abuse and forced adoptions have eroded trust.”

“You have committed to a just and fair approach, but there is still a long way to go,” De Croo told the pope. “Church ministers act with conviction and love, but when something goes wrong, a cover-up is unacceptable.”

Belgium has been hit particularly hard by clergy abuse scandals, including the high-profile case of former bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who resigned after pleading guilty to abusing minors, including two of his own nephews.

“Today words are not enough,” De Croo said. “Concrete steps need to be taken. Victims need to be heard and take center stage. They have a right to the truth and injustices must be recognized.”

“In order to look to the future, the Church must first cleanse itself of its past,” he said.

Francis did not shy away from this, calling abuse “a scourge against which the Church is fighting resolutely and resolutely, listening to and accompanying those who have been wounded, and implementing a preventive program throughout the world.”

However, the negative reaction to the abuse scandals was not the only sour note the pope heard, as Sels, the rector in Leuven, also grilled him on the role of women in the church.

“The authority of the Church also depends on the extent to which it welcomes diversity in society,” Sels said, asking loudly why Catholicism “tolerates this huge divide between men and women in a Church that is de facto often led by women?”

“Wouldn’t the Church be more cordial if it gave women a more prominent position, including in the priesthood”? – he asked – of course knowing full well that the Pope had already given the answer, so it was more of a rhetorical question.

Sels also called for a more open stance on LGBTQ+ issues, saying that “the Church around the world is called to incorporate the latest scientific discoveries into dialogue with theology,” and added that Catholicism should guard against “once and for all” responses.

Finally, Lemley, dean of the faculty of theology and religious studies at Leuven, informed the pope that while the university “is at the service of our Church,” this commitment is expressed in what he called a “critically loyal way.”

“A true friend doesn’t always tell you what you want to hear,” Lemley said. “It also tells you… what you need to improve.”

Lemley gave the pope a book titled The Bishop of Rome and the Theologians of Leuven, which includes, among other things, a chapter on “rethinking church norms regarding sexuality.”

The book begins with a frank confession: “This papal visit is not without controversy, partly because of the many scandals surrounding sexual, emotional and spiritual violence in the Church,” we read in the introduction. “Those who are associated with it cannot count on much kindness from society and culture.”

Lemley suggested that the Church may need to rethink some fundamentals.

“I think the problem that the Church faces today is that it tends to look for universal truths, you know, universal dogmas, universal views… that’s kind of a problem because we have so many different countries with such different cultures , and some are secularized, others are not.”

“So as long as we try to have one universal, inviolable truth for everyone and everyone, it is difficult,” he said – once again causing a headache for the pope representing the Church that supposedly proclaims just such a universal truth of truth.

In his own way, Francis did not shy away from the challenge, telling professors in Leuven on Friday afternoon that “it is wonderful to see universities as generating culture and ideas, but above all as promoting the passion for the search for truth, at a level in the service of human progress.”

Francis lamented what he called the “intellectual fatigue” of those who refuse to seek the truth and thus remain in a “constant state of uncertainty, devoid of all passion, as if the search for meaning were useless and reality incomprehensible.”

It was a powerful counternote to the end of a difficult day – one in which Francis himself could be forgiven for feeling a little tired, if not intellectually, at least physically, and perhaps even pastorally.