Belgium's king and prime minister seized the opportunity presented by a papal visit to publicly voice outrage over sex abuse and forced adoption scandals involving their country's Catholic clergy.
In a highly unusual, face-to-face rebuke of Pope Francis, King Philippe demanded that the Vatican work "incessantly" to atone for the crimes and to help victims heal, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Philippe's remarks at the royal family's Laeken Castle in Brussels were followed by even more pointed comments by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who AP said was allowed to address Francis in a rare exception to Vatican protocol.
"Victims need to be heard. They need to be at the center. They have a right to truth. Misdeeds need to be recognized," De Croo told the pontiff. "When something goes wrong we cannot accept cover-ups."
De Croo also said, "To be able to look into the future, the church needs to come clean on its past."
The extraordinary confrontation — after Francis arrived in Belgium to celebrate the 600th anniversary of Leuven Catholic University — followed the 2010 resignation of Roger Vangheluwe, the long-serving Bishop of Bruges, for sexually abusing his nephew.
Later that year, the church released a report that acknowledged 507 Belgians had claimed to have been molested by priests, with at least 13 victims dying by suicide.
More recently, a scandal erupted over how the church forced single mothers to put about 30,000 children up for adoption after World War II and through the late 1980s, and received payments from the adoptive parents.
In unscripted remarks, Francis responded to the slew of sex abuse by saying, "The church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness and try to resolve this situation with Christian humility and put all the possibilities in place so that this doesn't happen again."
The pope — who defrocked Vangheluwe earlier this year — also said he was "saddened" by the forced adoptions, but said they were "mixed in with what was unfortunately the prevailing view in all parts of society at this time."
