Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said on Thursday that Pope Francis called abortion “murder” and doctors who perform abortions “contract killers” when he returned to Rome from Belgium last week. vehemently criticized.
“It is completely unacceptable for a foreign head of state to make such statements about our democratic decision-making,” Decroo said. said on Thursday.
Pope Francis held an informal press conference with reporters on Sunday on a plane returning from Belgium.
“A woman has the right to her life and the life of her children,” the Pope explained, via Catholic News Agency (CNA). “Let's remember to say that: Abortion is murder. … It kills human beings. The doctors who perform it are contract killers. … And there's no debate about that.”
De Croo did not appreciate Francis' remarks at all, saying that Belgium “doesn't need lessons on how our parliamentarians pass laws democratically…Fortunately, the Church “The days when the law was decided are long gone.”
The Pope's comments struck a nerve with the Belgian head of state, largely because of a controversial law currently under consideration in the Belgian parliament that would extend the time limit for women to obtain abortions from 12 to 18 weeks. There is.
One of the highlights of the Pope's visit to Belgium was a visit to the tomb of Belgian King Baudouin in the royal crypt of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Brussels.
In 1990, it was King Baudouin who was exiled for a day by his own government for refusing to sign a law legalizing abortion. The government enacted abortion laws in Baudouin's absence and reinstated him the next day.
Francis praised the former Belgian monarch as someone who “would rather resign as king in order not to sign the murder law.”
“According to official statistics, Belgium has a population of less than 12 million people and at least 16,000 children are killed in the womb every year,” CNA announced. report. “In 2011, the number of deaths from abortion reached a peak of approximately 20,000.''
