"Crisis of faith" in the West Requires a Return to the Gospel: Pope Francis in Belgium

Only 50% of Belgians identified as Catholic in 2022, a decline of 16% from 10 years prior. Attendance at Mass has also dropped significantly, with only 8.9% of the population attending at least once a month. 

The pope noted that the current crisis reflects a significant shift in the Church’s role in society. 

“We have moved from a Christianity located within a welcoming social framework to a ‘minority’ Christianity, or … a Christianity of witness,” he said. 

This transformation, he argued, requires priests “who are in love with Jesus Christ and who are attentive to responding to the often implicit demands of the Gospel as they walk with God’s holy people.”

Pope Francis was welcomed to the basilica by Archbishop Luc Terlinden of Malines-Brussels, who highlighted the historical contributions of Belgian missionaries, including St. Damien of Molokai, who was beatified in the basilica in 1995.

Located atop Koekelberg hill, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart is the fifth largest Catholic church in the world, according to the Vatican. Inspired after a visit to Paris’ Sacred Heart basilica, Belgium’s King Leopold II called for the construction of the basilica. The king himself laid the first stone in 1905, but the basilica was not finished until 1970 as construction was halted during the two World Wars.

During the meeting at the basilica with local Belgian Catholics, Pope Francis reflected on the upcoming second Vatican assembly of the Synod on Synodality, scheduled to begin on October 2.

When asked by Dr. Arnaud Join-Lambert, a theologian on the Synod secretariat’s Methodology Commission, about the future of synodality in the secularized West, the pope responded that “the synodal process must involve returning to the Gospel.”

Pope Francis underlined that synodality should not be “about prioritizing ‘fashionable’ reforms, but asking, how can we bring the Gospel to a society that is no longer listening or has distanced itself from the faith?”

The wounds of abuse

In Belgium, the “crisis of faith” has gone hand in hand with revelations of clerical abuse by Church leadership. 

At the basilica, the pope listened intently to testimonies from various church representatives, including Mia De Schamphelaere, who works with victims of abuse in Flanders.

“When the first major abuse crisis erupted in our Church in 2010, following a bishop's confession of abuse, the social upheaval was great,” she said.

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“There followed a flood of reports from victims who testified, sometimes for the first time in their lives, that they had been abused at a young age by a priest or religious person. Like many citizens, we felt horror, sadness, and helplessness. We were also shocked and ashamed as believers.”

Earlier this year, Pope Francis laicized former Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe many years after the former prelate admitted to repeatedly sexually abusing his nephews. A previous archbishop of Brussels, the late Cardinal Godfried Danneels, reportedly called on a victim of Vangheluwe’s abuse to remain silent.

De Schamphelaere poignantly shared with the pope the traumatic impact of the abuse crisis. 

“Victims of abuse at a young age bring with them lifelong suffering. How can the Church see, recognize, and learn from the wounds of survivors?” she asked. 

In response, the pope emphasized the necessity of mercy and compassion. “There is a need for a great deal of mercy to keep us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims,” he stated. He urged the Church to be “at the service of all without belittling anyone,” acknowledging that the roots of violence often stem from an abuse of power.

Pope Francis met personally with 17 victims of clerical abuse in Belgium for more than two hours on Friday night at the apostolic nunciature in Brussels where he listened to their stories and their expectations regarding the Church's commitment against abuse, according to the Holy See Press Office.

It was one of many meetings in Belgium not included in the pope’s official schedule. The pope also received European Union and World Health Organization representatives at the nunciature on Saturday morning before making a quick surprise stop at the Church of Saint Gilles in Brussels to visit the homeless assisted by the parish. 

Pope Francis was gifted with some beer brewed by the parish, the profits of which are used to support their service to the homeless.