Pope Leo XIV met on Saturday with a group of people who were sexually abused by members of the clergy in Belgium.
The Holy See press office said the group of fifteen people were victims of abuse when they were minors.
The Vatican said many of the survivors had previously met the late Pope Francis during his 2024 visit to Belgium, adding that the late Pope had heard their story “with a sense of shame for what they endured as children.”
Belgium is a largely Roman Catholic country, where the Belgian Catholic Church has been plagued by a series of abuse scandals in recent years.
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The meeting lasted about three hours, taking place “in an atmosphere of closeness, listening and dialogue with the victims, both intense and painful,” the Vatican said.
It ended with prayer.
Members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors also accompanied the group. The Vatican said the commission works closely with the church in Belgium on security issues.
In 2023, a documentary on Belgian public broadcaster VRT gave new impetus to the long-standing and well-documented history of church abuse, leading several new victims to come forward.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told Pope Francis during his visit last year that the church must do more, including taking “concrete steps” to clean up the past and put the interests of survivors within the institution.
Edited by: Roshni Majumdar