In Belgium, Pope Francis strongly warns against scandal of abuse and cover-up National Catholic Register

Pope Francis firmly warned Catholics against the sin of causing a scandal during Sunday Mass. at the Belgian national stadium in Brussels.

He also urged the Belgian bishops to bring to light the evil of abuse and not hide it.

“Let the perpetrator of violence be judged – whether lay, laywoman, priest or bishop, let him be judged,” the Pope said during his homily on September 29.

Addressing some 40,000 spectators at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, the largest football stadium in Belgium, Pope Francis quoted from the Gospel of Mark: “If any of you causes a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it will be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”

“With these words addressed to the disciples, Jesus warns against the danger of scandal, that is, of making the path of ‘the least of them’ more difficult,” the Pope said. “It’s a strong warning, a stern warning…”

The Catholic Church in Belgium is facing a significant decline in public trust. In 2022, only 50% of Belgians identified as Catholic, down 16% from a decade earlier, with only 8.9% attending Mass. at least once a month. The latest Vatican statistics estimate that there were just over 8 million Catholics in the country at the end of 2022.

During Holy Mass on a cold, partly cloudy day in the small Western European country, Pope Francis also beatified Carmelite Sister Ana de Jesús, spiritual daughter of Saint. Teresa of Ávila and friend of Saint. John of the Cross. Born Ana de Lobera y Torres, the nun helped the Discalced Carmelites expand into France and Belgium at the turn of the 17th century.

In his homily, the Pope praised the new blessed as one of the church’s examples of “a feminine style of holiness, gentle but strong, based on openness, community and witness.”

“In the Church of her time, this woman was one of the heroines of the great reform movement,” he continued. “In a time marked by painful scandals in the Christian community and beyond, she and her companions restored many people to the faith through a simple life of poverty, prayer, work and love.”

The beatification Mass was Pope Francis’ last stop after nearly three days in Belgium, a constitutional monarchy, where he spoke to Catholic clergy and religious, met with about 300 dignitaries, including King Philippe and Queen Matilda and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, and held meetings with professors and students of two Catholic universities in the country.

During the visit, the pope also held a number of extra-curricular meetings – he surprised elderly people in a nursing home, disrupted a meeting of Catholic youth and prayed in front of the tomb of the Belgian King Baudouin, a Catholic who, instead of temporarily abdicating the throne, signed a law legalizing abortion in 1990.

He also spent more than two hours in private conversations with 17 victims of clerical sexual abuse on the evening of September 27, which he mentioned in his homily on the sin of scandal.

“Let us listen to what Jesus says in the Gospel: Get away from me, you eyes of scandal that look at those in need and turn away! Get out of my sight, scandalous hands that clench their fists to hide their treasures and hide them! Follow me, you feet of scandal, you who run quickly, not to draw near to the suffering, but to avoid them and keep your distance from them! he said. “We have to abandon this mentality! Nothing good or solid can be built on it!”

The pope also called on Catholics to abandon selfishness and a closed mind, calling them scandals that separate us from God and from our brothers and sisters in Christ.

“Selfishness, like everything that hinders charity, is ‘scandalous’ because it crushes the little ones,” he added. “It humiliates man in his dignity and muffles the cry of the oppressed.”

At the end of the Holy Mass Pope Francis led tens of thousands of people at the stadium in reciting the Angelus – a prayer that he said “needs to be revived because it is a synthesis of the Christian mystery and the Church teaches us to incorporate it into our daily activities.”

He also said that upon his return to Rome, he would speed up the beatification process of King Baudouin, who ruled from 1951 until his death in 1993. “May his example as a man of faith enlighten those in power,” Francis said.

Pope Francis visited the king’s tomb in the royal crypt of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels on September 28. According to the Vatican, Pope Francis praised King Baudouin’s courage for deciding “to leave his position as king in order not to sign the murderous law” legalizing abortion.

Groups of Belgian children dressed in yellow and white, the colors of the Holy See, sat on the turf in the center of the stadium, surrounding the globe during mass. The young girl then sang a song and the mass choir also sang other songs.

Before arriving in Belgium, Pope Francis also spent one day in Luxembourg on September 26, where he met with Catholics and local leaders, including Grand Duke Henry and his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Theresa and Prime Minister Luc Frieden.

The Pope will return to Rome on September 29 in the afternoon.