Belgian PM demands 'concrete steps' over Catholic sex abuse
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Friday criticized Pope Francis for the Catholic Church's history of sex abuse and cover-ups as the pontiff began a three-day visit to the country.
De Croo demanded "concrete steps" from the Catholic Church over coming clean with the past and put victims' interests ahead those within the institution.
The speech by De Croo was one of the most pointed ever directed at the Pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keeps expressions of outrage out of public discourse.
King Philippe also had strong words for Francis, demanding the Church work "incessantly" to atone for the crimes.
The scandal is particularly raw in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have damaged the Church's credibility.
A four-episode Flemish language documentary, "Godvergeten" (Godforsaken) aired last year on public broadcaster VRT, bringing fresh momentum to the longstanding and well documented history of abuse and prompting many new victims to come forward.
https://www.dw.com/en/belgian-pm-demands...a-70343039
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Friday criticized Pope Francis for the Catholic Church's history of sex abuse and cover-ups as the pontiff began a three-day visit to the country.
De Croo demanded "concrete steps" from the Catholic Church over coming clean with the past and put victims' interests ahead those within the institution.
The speech by De Croo was one of the most pointed ever directed at the Pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keeps expressions of outrage out of public discourse.
King Philippe also had strong words for Francis, demanding the Church work "incessantly" to atone for the crimes.
The scandal is particularly raw in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have damaged the Church's credibility.
A four-episode Flemish language documentary, "Godvergeten" (Godforsaken) aired last year on public broadcaster VRT, bringing fresh momentum to the longstanding and well documented history of abuse and prompting many new victims to come forward.
https://www.dw.com/en/belgian-pm-demands...a-70343039
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
