The need for hope

“The Holy See deplores the raid on Belgium’s Bishops’ Conference”. Cardinal Bertone stigmatized. The episode “is unprecedented – said the Secretary of State – even under communism”. Yesterday, in a letter to Monsignor Léonard, President of the Belgian bishops, with powerful words Benedict XVI expressed his “surprise” for the “deplorable manner” used in the raids on the cathedral of Malines and on the place where the Belgian bishops were gathered. The Pope promptly conveyed his solidarity to the Belgian bishops “in this sad moment”. In reiterated authoritative statements the Holy See stressed that the magistrates’ attitude has crossed the limits and that – as Pius XI would say – ‘the Church cannot be derided'”. In an article published by Italian daily ‘Corriere della Sera’ (Monday June 28) Italian historian and founder of the Saint Egidio Community Andrea Riccardi, underlined that over the past days “a large part of Belgium’s press appears to not have understood Rome’s reactions”: “Some ask why the Vatican should be involved with the inquiries in Belgium, while others denounced the intention to ‘cover up’ the clergy’s responsibilities in the cases of paedophilia”. But “these remarks fail to acknowledge that the Church is a community, and that whilst living within a State, the Church is not limited to her national reality”. In fact, “the Pope’s presence, his support of the Church and his call to renewal, are part and parcel of Catholicism”. “This can be seen also in the cases of paedophilia and in other countless situations” since “the Catholic Church is a community that is not defined by national borders”.A major link. The Church has “a specific social bearing”, the historian adds. “Her set of rules are marked by autonomy owing to the fact that her purposes are neither those of a State nor those of civil society”. The Pope doesn’t intend to “cover up”. Rather, “the ‘performance’-raid on the Belgian Conference, can be described as marked by ‘Soviet methods’, if it weren’t carried out by a tired State affected by a crisis”. In this sense, the intervention methods of the conspicuous group of investigators – who blocked the bishops, took their diaries and mobile phones, seized files from the Conference premises reaching the point of searching in the tomb of Cardinal Mercier located inside the Cathedral – shows that the bishops are considered a dangerous criminal ‘mob'”. Riccardi reiterates: “(Catholic) Minister of Justice De Clerck defended the investigation and provided an answer to Cardinal Bertone: ‘the bishops were treated normally'”. Moreover, the history scholar asks, “what does the ‘normality’ of Catholic Church – State relations in Belgium consist in?” “To say the least, there’s a misunderstanding between a part of Belgian public opinion and the Church”, continues Riccardi, “and the paedophilia cases increased the misunderstandings”. “A great part of it is due to the deep process that is tearing the Country apart”. Firstly, “Belgium is the result of a 1830 agreement between Catholics and Liberals, which granted independence to the State of the Francophone and Flemish population, all of whom were Catholics”. The Catholic Church, Riccardi explains, was “a major link in a Country where during the 20th century the Flemish population increasingly acknowledged its peculiarity”, and “Cardinal Mercier, whose tomb was searched, a pioneer of ecumenism”, “is the symbol of the moral resistance of the small Belgian population to the German occupation during the First World War”. Deep down. During the two World Wars the Belgian Church was “the soul of an oppressed Country”. Today, underlines the historian, “the Bishops’ Conference is one of the few institutions which resisted to the separation of the Flemish and Francophone areas” while “Belgium is gradually breaking apart”, “not only in the linguistic and ethnic realm, but also deep down”. Indeed, “the attitude towards the Church exemplifies it. Here there’s no Concordat, because the Church never needed one. Belgium was established as a result of the first European agreement between Catholics and Liberals”. Riccardi concludes: “The Church has a great history of action and friendship with freedom in Belgium. This Country was the ideal of 20th Century Liberals (notably Catholics), whose slogan was: ‘Freedom as in Belgium’, one of the founders of the European Community. But these are distant accounts of a tired Country, whose institutions are crumbling. Over the past decades the Church has grown more silent and withdrawn, not only because of secularization but also because of resignation. However, despite the shadows, the Church constitutes a reservoir of hope in a Country in difficulty. And Belgium needs hope and needs a future”.