Expose evil, denounce abuse, no more coverups, pope says

BRUSSELS (CNS) — Calling on the world’s bishops not to cover up any instance or form of abuse, Pope Francis said the evil of abuse must be exposed.

“There is room for everyone in the church,” he said, and everyone will face God at the final judgment.

However, there is no room for abuse and no room for cover-ups, he said on his final day in Belgium, a country that has been shaken by shocking revelations of abuse by church members, including a Belgian bishop the pope laicized this year, 14 years after the bishop resigned after admitting he abused minors, including his own nephew.

In his homily during Mass Sept. 29 in Brussels’ open-air King Baudouin Stadium, the pope strayed from his prepared text to urge bishops to hide nothing, “condemn abuses” and assist perpetrators in getting help. 

Nearly 40,000 faithful from Belgium and surrounding countries attended the Mass, which marked the last day of his Sept. 26-29 trip to Luxembourg and Belgium.

“Evil must be uncovered” as has been done by many victims who have spoken out with courage, he said. “May abusers be judged,” whether they are laypeople, clergy or bishops, he said to applause.

May the cries and pleas of those who are abused reach heaven and touch people’s hearts, “make us ashamed, call us to conversion,” he said, calling the voices of victims “prophetic” that must not be silenced.

The pope’s words mirrored the day’s Gospel reading from Mark, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

The bulk of his homily was dedicated to sources of scandal, including workers who have been wronged and people who suffer injustice, which cannot be ignored, he said.

Remember, too, he said, that immigrants without documents are human beings “who, like all of us, dream of a better future for themselves and their loved ones.”

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause when the pope arrived in the popemobile and every time he stopped to kiss an infant or try on a Scout neckerchief. The crowd also stood, clapped and cheered when the head of the Catholic royal family, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, arrived before Mass.

“Selfishness, like everything that impedes charity, is ‘scandalous,'” the pope said in his homily, “because it crushes those who are little. It humiliates people in their dignity and suppresses the cry of the afflicted.” 

If self-interest and “market mentalities” were the sole foundations for communities and people, he said, “there would no longer be space for those who are in need nor mercy for those who make mistakes nor compassion for those who suffer and cannot move forward in life.”

An example are people “without documents,” who often “go unheard and end up as victims of exploitation,” he said on the day that also marked the church’s celebration of World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

“The word of God is clear,” he said. Those who suffer cannot be “erased” or stifled with “superficial attempts of social assistance,” he said. “They are the living voice of the Spirit because they remind us that we are all poor sinners called to conversion.”

“Let us not deceive ourselves: without love, nothing lasts,” Pope Francis said. The Gospel of mercy needs to be “at the foundation of our choices.”

The Mass began with the rite of beatification of Sister Ana de Jesús, a Discalced Carmelite nun, mystic and close companion of St. Teresa of Ávila. The new blessed was born in Spain in 1545 and died in Brussels in 1621. 

The last time a pope celebrated a beatification in Belgium was in 1995 when St. John Paul II beatified St. Damien of Molokai, the Belgian missionary who served those with Hansen’s disease in Hawaii.

Blessed Ana “was among the protagonists of a great reform movement,” the pope said in his homily. “In a time marked by painful scandals, within and outside of the Christian community, she and her companions brought many people back to the faith through their simple lives of poverty, prayer, work and charity.”

“Let us then gratefully welcome the example she has given us of ‘feminine styles of holiness,'” he said.

Attending the Mass were also thousands of young people from Europe who had been taking part in a nearby youth festival Sept. 28-29, organized by dozens of Christian youth associations in Belgium and with the support of the country’s bishops’ conference. 

The pope made a surprise stop at the festival late Sept. 28 after an already full day of separate meetings with the country’s faithful, with students, with refugees and the unhoused, and with dozens of his fellow Jesuits.

In his brief remarks, the pope encouraged the enthusiastic crowd of about 6,000 young people to “make noise” in life. Young people are meant to move forward, help others, remember the Lord, pray and to “make a ruckus,” he said to cheers.