The Sat Report: Belgium, Luxembourg, Abuse, and Van Looy

Bonus Sat Report this week previewing the Pope's Visit to Belgium and Luxembourg

On Thursday, September 26th, Pope Francis departs on 46th Apostolic Voyage of his Pontificate, visiting Luxembourg for less than a day, before heading to Belgium, a country were Catholicism has been in steep decline since Vatican II, and like so many other countries in Europe has been rocked by the scourge of clerical sexual abuse, ostensibly to mark the 600th anniversary of the Catholic University of Louvain, founded in 1425, and culminating with the beatification of Venerable Ana de Jesús. 

The Papal Itinerary

As is customary for these trips, in Luxembourg Pope Francis will be received as the Head of State of the Vatican City State, meeting with His Royal Highness The Grand Duke, a devout Catholic who plunged the small Duchy of Luxembourg into a constitutional crisis when he refused to grant royal assent to new law on euthanasia in late 2008. Grand Duke Henri stated that it was contrary to his Catholic faith. Ultimately, euthanasia was legalized in Luxembourg, with the Grand Duke declared unable to perform his duty temporarily, thus allowing the law to take effect without the signature of the Grand Duke. Subsequently the constitution of Luxembourg was amended to mean that the Grand Duke as head of state no longer had to sanction laws for them to take effect, merely promulgating them. 

The Holy Father will also meet with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden, before addressing the civil authorities of Luxembourg. After having lunch, the Holy Father visits the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Luxembourg, to meet with the Catholic community, before departing for Belgium. 

Pope Francis official engagements in Belgium begin on Friday, September 27th, with a visit to His Royal Highness Phillipe, King of Belgians, in the Castle of Laeken, Brussels, before meeting with Alexander De Croo, the Prime Minister, and addressing the civil authorities of Belgium. The Holy Father ends his first day travelling to Leuven, meeting, and addressing the faculty of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. More on that later. 

On Saturday, His Holiness meets with the bishops, priests and religious of Belgium in the enormous National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels. The Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart is one of the largest churches in the world, built to mark the 75th Anniversary of Belgium independence, it is dedicated to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, after Paris’ Basilique du Sacré-Coeur. In the afternoon Pope Francis travels to Louvain-la-Neuve, to address the students of Université Catholique de Louvain, before ending the day meeting privately the Belgian Province of the Society of Jesus. 

The Pope ends his trip to Belgium by assisting in cope the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on Sunday from the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, with the beatification of Venerable Ana de Jesús, before immediately returning to Rome. Many will be looking at the attendance numbers of this Mass to gauge the success of this trip.

A soon-to-be-Blessed

Venerable Ana de Jesús was a 17th Century Spanish Discalced Carmelite, and a close collaborator of Teresa of Ávila, founded monasteries across Europe. She was called by the Habsburg ruler of the Low Countries, Archduke Albert, to found what would become the Brussel Carmel, where she was prioress for fourteen years and where she died in 1621. The Brussel Carmel was suppressed by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, due to his Edict on Idle Institutions. 

The cause of canonization was opened immediately after her death but made very little progress before being largely forgotten. In 1872, Father Bertelo Ignacio, a Belgian Carmelite, resumed the work and in 1878 her cause was formally opened by the Holy See and Ana de Jesús was declared a Servant of God. It would be another 141 years before Ana de Jesús was declared venerable. In December 2023, Pope Francis recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Ana de Jesús, paving the way for her imminent beatification. 

The great St. Therese of Lisieux in ‘Story of a Soul’ recounts a vision she had of Ana, who she referred to as "Venerable Ana of Jesus", who told her she will soon be able to go to heaven. Saint Therese wrote; "Without the least hesitation, I recognized Venerable Anne of Jesus, foundress of the Carmel in France. Her face was beautiful but with an immaterial beauty." 

General Apathy Surrounding this Visit

Unlike the enthusiasm seen in south-east Asia, there is a general apathy towards the Church in general in Belgium, driven by anger over sexual abuse scandals, the Pope’s inconsistent handling of these, and a general sense of shame that ordinary practice Catholics feel, all resulting in a lack of enthusiasm for the Pope and his visit to the country. This has come to fore with the controversy surrounding the one of the major encounters with Pope Francis and the world of academia. 

Pope Francis is due to address academics of the Catholic University of Leuven to mark the 600th Anniversary of its founding. Despite this there is no mention of the Pope’s visit on the homepage of KU Leuven’s website, not even under the events tab, nor in the section dedicated to marking the anniversary. This caused Bart Maddens, Professor of Political Science at KU Leuven to claim that the papal visit was being deliberately minimized and concealed by the authorities at the institution, or as he described them “the militant left-wing students of that time [John Paul II’s 1985 visit] now call the shots at the university.”. Maddens also claimed that the Pope’s meeting with university staff was by invitation only adding “that almost two-thirds of KU Leuven staff members vote for left-wing parties, whose positions on ethical issues are in complete opposition to the pope.” 

Clerical Sexual Abuse

The Belgium Bishops’ Conference announced that a group of victims of clerical sexual abuse, six men and 9 women, will meet with Pope, in complete privacy in an unknown time and place. The Vatican at a press conference on Monday did not confirm nor deny that such a meeting had been arranged. 

On the topic of sexual abuse, Matteo Bruni, Director of the Holy See Press Office was asked at the presser about the case of Roger Vangheluwe, and said that Pope Francis is “aware of the pain, drama, and suffering in Belgium, and we can certainly expect references to this.” Vangheluwe, the former bishop of Bruges, sexually abused his nephew, a minor, over the course of 15 years, while he was a priest and a later as a bishop. Vangheluwe later admitted to sexually abusing another nephew, who was also a minor, over the course of a year. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI accepted his resignation after Vangheluwe admitted to the serial sexual abuse of his nephew. The statute of limitations in Belgium meant that Vangheluwe was never prosecuted. The Vatican for its part ordered Vangheluwe to leave Belgium, undergo spiritual and psychological treatments provided by the Vatican’s Doctrinal Office, and barred from exercising any priestly or episcopal ministry. In the same year Vangheluwe gave an interview where he admitted sexually abusing another of his nephews, a minor, whilst protesting that though he was a homosexual, he was not a pedophile. On March 20th of this year, Pope Francis finally laicized Vangheluwe following the recommendation of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith. 

Separately, on Tuesday, Patrick Hoogmartens, Bishop of Hasselt, announced that he would not be taking part of any of the public events of this Papal trip, after sustained public pressure, following his praise of a deceased priest, who was found guilty of clerical sexual abuse. Hoogmartens claims he did not know about abuse at the time he made those statements. 

The Curious Case of Van Looy

Then there is the case of Lucas Van Looy, Bishop Emeritus of Ghent, who is expected to present at all the public celebrations. The Salesian is a longtime favorite of Pope Francis, who wears the same pectoral cross as our Holy Father, of Christ the Good Shepherd. Pope Francis choose Van Looy as one of his own appointed delegates the Synod of the Family, and again to the Youth Synod. 

The announcement of Van Looy as a personal pick of the Pope to attend the Synod of the Family, caused significant anger, dismay and outrage by the faithful in Belgium and advocates of the victims of clerical sexual abuse from all over the world. In 2010, it was revealed that three years earlier Van Looy had assigned a priest who had been found guilty of sexually assaulting a minor in 1994 to a new parish. At the time Van Looy vigorously defended his decision in the media. Even worse, in 2014, on eve of the Synod of the Family, it was revealed that another Belgian priest guilty of sexual abuse was running an orphanage in Rwanda, and it was revealed that Van Looy paid $25,000 to a victim of said priest, yet he failed to notify civil authorities of the priests continued activities in Rwanda that Van Looy had knowledge of. 

To add to the tone deafness that this Pontificate has developed around the subject of clerical sexual abuse - the cases of Rupnik and Zanchetta spring to mind- Pope Francis once again appointed Van Looy as one of his personal picks to attend the Synod on Young People. The Holy Father has his favorites, which for whatever reason, prevent him from hearing the noise being made outside. 

The situation reached fever-pitch when unexpectedly, given the outraged provoked when he was personally chosen to attend two Synods, Pope Francis announced in May 2022 that he would elevate Van Looy to the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, who having reached 80 years old could not vote in a future conclave. The protests were too much that even Van Looy had to petition the Holy Father to not make him a cardinal, The Belgian Bishops’ Conference for its part released a statement that read “"In order to prevent the victims of such abuses from being hurt again following his cardinalate, Bishop Van Looy asked the Pope to exempt him from accepting this appointment. Pope Francis accepted his request." 

That wasn’t the end of the story, Pope Francis for some inexplicable reason, which many victims of clerical sexual abuse in Belgium took as a slight, decided to give Van Looy a cardinal's ring anyway, as personal gift with no canonical status. I really don’t know what to make about this whole situation. The Pope’s stubbornness don’t make sense. It makes me angry for the victims of clerical sexual abuse, it makes me angry because the Pope clearly doesn’t care about the criticism he received when he invited Van Looy to not one but two Synods. I don’t understand why he did this, outside of trying to reward an ideological ally. That may sound cynical, but they are the optics of the situation. 

How this trip will be judged

One prays that meeting of the Pope with the victims of clerical sexual abuse may first and most importantly help them, that they may know that despite all that they have gone through, and how much the Church has let them down and sadly continues to let them down, that they are truly important and their voice matters. The issue of Van Looy will be raised with the Holy Father, and he will need to explain his actions to the victims.  

I hope that on the return from Rome we get some answers on Rupnik, Zanchetta, we most certainly will hear the Pope speak about Vangheluwe and are probably going to hear a lot about Medjugorje. 

I hope you all have a good week, on the next Sat Report we preview the Second Synodal Session on the Synod of Bishops on Synodality: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission.