Alexander De Croo's blistering welcome speech at the start of Francis' visit on Friday was one of the most pointed ever directed at the Pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keep outrage out of public remarks.
But even King Philippe had strong words for Francis, demanding the church work "incessantly" to atone for the crimes and help victims heal.
Victims need to be heard and concrete steps taken, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told the Pope. (AP PHOTO)
Their tone underscored just how raw the abuse scandal still is in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have devastated the hierarchy's credibility and contributed to an overall decline in Catholicism and the influence of the once-powerful church.
Francis applauded at the end of De Croo's speech and was expected to meet with victims in private later on Friday. "This is our shame and humiliation," he said in an improvised response.
"Today, words alone do not suffice. We also need concrete steps," De Croo told Francis and an audience of royals, church officials, diplomats and politicians at Laeken Castle, the residence of Belgium's royal family.
"Victims need to be heard. They need to be at the centre. They have a right to truth. Misdeeds need to be recognised," he said. "When something goes wrong we cannot accept cover-ups," he said. "To be able to look into the future, the church needs to come clean on its past."
Revelations of Belgium's horrific abuse scandal have dribbled out in bits over a quarter-century, punctuated by a bombshell in 2010 when the country's longest-serving bishop, Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, was allowed to resign without punishment after admitting he had sexually abused his nephew for 13 years.
Francis only defrocked Vangheluwe earlier in 2024, in a move clearly designed to remove a lingering source of outrage among Belgians before his visit.
Two months after Vangheluwe resigned, Belgian police staged what were then unprecedented raids on Belgian church offices, the home of recently retired Archbishop Godfried Danneels, and even the crypt of a prelate - a violation the Vatican decried at the time as "deplorable".
Danneels was then caught on tape trying to persuade Vangheluwe's nephew to keep quiet until the bishop retired.
Finally, in September 2010, the church released a 200-page report that said 507 people had come forward with stories of being molested by priests, including when they were as young as 2. It identified at least 13 suicides by victims and attempts by six more.
Pope Francis went off-script to express the church's shame for the scandal in Belgium. (AP PHOTO)
Significantly, both King Philippe and De Croo made their toughest remarks about abuse in Dutch, the language spoken in the once-staunchly Catholic Flanders where the abuse cases have gained the most notoriety, while the more neutral parts of their speeches were delivered in French and German.Â
De Croo's speech was also outside typical Vatican protocol, which normally would have seen only the King address the Pope. As occurred in Canada, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the pope alongside the country's governor-general, De Croo's office requested that he be able to speak, officials said.
The pope also referred to abuse in his remarks, insisting that the church was "addressing firmly and decisively" the problem by implementing prevention programs, listening to victims and accompanying them to heal.
But after the astonishing dressing-down by the prime minister and King, Francis went off-script to express the shame of the church for the scandal and voice his commitment to ending it.
"The church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness and try to resolve this situation with Christian humility and put all the possibilities in places so that this doesn't happen again," Francis said. "But even if it were only one (victim), it is enough to be ashamed."
