Pope Francis urged by Belgian abuse survivors to improve compensation

The Catholic Church’s failures in responding to sexual abuse by clergy have been in focus again during Pope Francis’ visit this weekend to Belgium, with the pontiff facing calls from high-profile figures and survivors for more concrete action.

The country’s king, prime minister and a Catholic university rector led the calls, and in a two-hour meeting on Friday with more than a dozen abuse survivors, Francis heard requests in particular to provide better financial compensation for victims.

“We didn’t talk about amounts as such, but we are very clear on the fact … that what has been achieved and obtained so far is totally insufficient,” said Annesophie Cardinal, one of the survivors in the meeting at the Vatican’s embassy in Brussels.

Cardinal, who was abused as a child, spoke emotionally about the encounter, calling it “very challenging”. She said the survivors felt a responsibility “also to speak on behalf of all the people who couldn’t meet him”.

Jean-Marc Turine, another survivor who took part, expressed frustration. He said Francis “beat around the bush” and offered no concrete actions.

“He asks for forgiveness, he says he is ashamed and that it hurts his heart,” Turine said. “Well, that doesn’t help us much.”

The Vatican provided few details about the meeting, as per its usual practice when the pope meets survivors. In a brief statement, it said Francis had listened to the Belgian victims and “expressed shame for what they suffered as children”.

STRONG LANGUAGE

Francis’ trip to Belgium is meant to focus on the 600th anniversary of two Catholic universities. But the Church’s record on abuse has come to the fore.

At the pope’s meeting with Belgian dignitaries early on Friday, both King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo raised the issue in unusually strong language for a papal foreign visit.

In a meeting with local Catholics on Saturday at Brussels’ national basilica, a church worker from the Flanders region told Francis the scandals had created feelings of “horror, sadness, and helplessness”.

Belgian clergy abuse victims have received financial compensation through a Church-established mediation body following a 2010 investigation that uncovered widespread abuse over decades.

In total, the Arbitration Centre upheld 507 claims from victims of priests, awarding a total of three million euros ($3.4 million), a former member of the Centre’s scientific committee told Parliament in 2016.

Settlements ranged from 2,500 euros ($2,800) to 25,000 euros ($28,000) depending on the severity of the abuse, but many survivors say the compensation was inadequate and the process lacked transparency.

Turine, 78, said survivors had asked Francis during Friday’s meeting for more compensation to allow for better psychiatric treatment, and requested that any future amounts be managed by an outside entity, independent from church authorities.

He said he went to the meeting with Francis with “no expectations”. Survivors, he said, are not listened to in the Church.

“Will the pope do something to change things drastically?” he asked. “Many things need to change.”