Belgian Catholic university denounces pope's views on women's roles in society

brussels — 

Pope Francis' burdensome travel done Belgium reached caller lows Saturday erstwhile defiant Catholic assemblage women demanded to his look a "paradigm change" connected women's issues successful the religion and past expressed heavy disappointment erstwhile Francis dug in.

The Catholic University of Louvain, the Francophone field of Belgium's storied Catholic university, issued a scathing connection aft Francis visited and repeated his presumption that women are the "fertile" nurturers of the church, inducing grimaces successful his audience.

"UC Louvain expresses its incomprehension and disapproval of the presumption expressed by Pope Francis regarding the relation of women successful the religion and society," the connection said, calling the pope's views "deterministic and reductive."

Francis' travel to Belgium, ostensibly to observe the university's 600th anniversary, was ever going to beryllium difficult, fixed Belgium's bequest of clerical intersexual maltreatment and secular trends that person emptied churches successful the erstwhile staunchly Catholic country.

Francis got an earful Friday astir the maltreatment situation starting with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander Croos and continuing connected down to the victims themselves.

But it's 1 happening for the pope to beryllium lambasted by the wide premier curate for the church's mishandling of priests who raped children. It's rather different to beryllium openly criticized by the Catholic assemblage that invited him and agelong was the Vatican's intelligence fiefdom successful Belgium.

Church needs 'paradigm shift,' accidental students

The students made an impassioned plea to Francis for the religion to alteration its presumption of women. It is an contented Francis knows well: He has made immoderate changes during his 11-year pontificate, allowing women to service arsenic acolytes, appointing respective women to high-ranking positions successful the Vatican, and saying women indispensable person greater decision-making roles successful the church.

But helium has ruled retired ordaining women arsenic priests and has refused truthful acold to budge connected demands to let women to service arsenic deacons, who execute galore of the aforesaid tasks arsenic priests. He has taken the women's contented disconnected the array for statement astatine the Vatican's upcoming three-week synod, oregon meeting, due to the fact that it's excessively thorny to beryllium dealt with successful specified a abbreviated time. He has punted it to theologians and canonists to chew implicit into adjacent year.

In a missive work aloud connected signifier with the pope listening attentively, the students noted that Francis' landmark 2015 biology encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be) made virtually nary notation of women, cited nary women theologians and "exalts their maternal relation and forbids them entree to ordained ministries."

"Women person been made invisible. Invisible successful their lives, women person besides been invisible successful their intelligence contributions," the students said.

"What, then, is the spot of women successful the church?" they asked. "We request a paradigm shift, which tin and indispensable gully connected the treasures of spirituality arsenic overmuch arsenic connected the improvement of the assorted disciplines of science."

Francis said helium liked what they said, but repeated his predominant refrain that "the religion is woman," lone exists due to the fact that the Virgin Mary agreed to beryllium the parent of Jesus, and that men and women were complementary.

"Woman is fertile welcome. Care. Vital devotion," Francis said. "Let america beryllium much attentive to the galore regular expressions of this love, from relationship to the workplace, from studies to the workout of work successful the religion and society, from matrimony to motherhood, from virginity to the work of others and the gathering up of the kingdom of God."

Louvain said specified terminology had nary spot successful a assemblage oregon nine today. It emphasized the constituent with the amusement for the lawsuit featuring a jazz rendition of Lady Gaga's LGBTQ+ anthem "Born This Way."

"UC Louvain tin lone explicit its disagreement with this deterministic and reductive position," the connection said. "It reaffirms its tendency for everyone to flourish wrong it and successful society, immoderate their origins, sex oregon intersexual orientation. It calls connected the religion to travel the aforesaid path, without immoderate signifier of discrimination."

The remark followed a code Friday by the rector of the Dutch field of the assemblage successful which helium ventured that the religion would beryllium a overmuch much welcoming spot if women could beryllium priests.

The university's back-to-back disapproval was particularly important arsenic Francis was agelong held up successful Europe arsenic a beacon of progressive anticipation pursuing the blimpish papacies of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope prays astatine king's tomb

Yet Francis toed the blimpish enactment earlier successful the time too.

He went to the royal crypt successful the Church of Our Lady to commune astatine the tomb of King Baudouin, champion known for having refused to springiness royal assent, 1 of his law duties, to a parliament-approved measure legalizing abortion.

Baudouin stepped down for 1 time successful 1990 to let the authorities to walk the law, which helium would different person been required to sign, earlier helium was reinstated arsenic king.

Francis praised Baudouin's courageousness erstwhile helium decided to "leave his presumption arsenic king to not motion a homicidal law," according to the Vatican summary of the backstage encounter, which was attended by Baudouin's nephew, King Philippe, and Queen Mathilde.

The pope past referred to a caller legislative connection to widen the ineligible bounds for an termination successful Belgium, from 12 weeks to 18 weeks aft conception. The measure failed astatine the past infinitesimal due to the fact that parties successful authorities negotiations considered the timing inopportune.

Francis urged Belgians to look to Baudouin's illustration successful preventing specified a instrumentality and added that helium hoped the erstwhile king's beatification origin would determination ahead.