He dad Francis was harshly questioned this Saturday about the role of women in the Church and society, and its answer caused disappointment and incomprehension among faithful and in the University Belgian who organized the meeting.
The students read a letter that evoked these themes during the visit of Francis to the University French-speaking Catholic from Louvain-la-Neuve.
“The invisibility of women in the intersectional dimensions of ecclesial ministries, social justice and thinking has consequences for the way we live the ecological transition,” the students expressed.
“The call to development comprehensive seems incompatible with the positions about the homosexuality and with the place of the women in the Church Catholic,” they noted.
In your answer, Francis stated that “the Church is a women“, and added that “what characterizes the womenwhat is feminine, is not determined by consensus or ideologies.”
After the visit, the University issued a release of press to express that “he deplores the positions conservatives” of dad about the role of women in society.
In your speech, Francis stated that “the women is a fruitful welcome, care, vital delivery”, in a phrase that University Católica considered a “reductionist position.”
Therefore, the University expressed his “incomprehension and disapproval of the position expressed by the dad Francis regarding the role of the women in the Church and in society.”
– “We are in shock” –
“We are in shock,” said the student Valentina Hendrix, 22, for whom Francis “It reduces our role in having children, being mothers, wives, everything from which we want to emancipate ourselves.”
He climatologist Jean-Pascal van Ypersele stated that Francis “he was not up to the task.”
“Answer that the Church is a women is really avoiding the nub of the question about respect for Church for the women and their role in the institution and in society,” he commented.
During the day, Francis visited the grave of king Belgian Baudouinwho died in 1993 and who refused to sign the law that decriminalizes abortion in Belgium.
In the presence of king Belgian, Philip, and Queen Matilda, Francis praised the “courage” of the sovereign who decided to “leave his position as king to not sign a murderous law,” he said.
In 1990, opposed to a bill decriminalizing abortion, Baudouin He declared himself “incapable of reigning” for several days, while Parliament approved the text.
According to the Vatican, Francis He also invited the Belgians to follow the example of king Baudouin“and said hope that the cause for your beatification be successful.
– Discussion about assaults –
In the morning, the dad He participated in a meeting with religious in the gigantic Basilica of the Sacred Heart, during which he was questioned about the cases of violence sexual in the field of Church Belgian.
Mia De Schamphelaere, representative of shelters for victims of violence sexual in the Belgian region of Flanders (northern, Flemish speaking), directly asked the pontiff about this controversial issue.
“How can the Church see, recognize and learn from the wounds of survivors? How can we build an ecclesial culture in which everyone, young and old, men and women“Do they feel safe and protected?” he asked.
In your answerhe dad emphasized the importance of listening to “the suffering of victims“, to (…) “make them feel our closeness and offer them all the help possible, to learn from them to be a church that serves everyone without dominating anyone.”
“One of the roots of violence is he abuse of canwhen we use the roles we have to crush others or manipulate them,” the pontiff said.
On Friday afternoon, Francis kept a meeting reserved, behind closed doors, with 17 victims of sexual assaults in the Belgian church.
His journey to Belgium will end on Sunday with a mass at the Rey stadium Baudouinin Brussels, where some 35,000 faithful are expected.
