Tonight, Pope Francis is arriving in Brussels for a four-day visit to our country. The occasion? KU-Leuven’s 600th anniversary. But the university’s anniversary has been cast in a shadow of another topic: sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. In the coming days, the Pope will talk with 15 victims of sexual abuse in the church’s institutions. But amid the media frenzy, questions arise: how does this attention affect the victims’ mental health, and can his visit spark real change?

Text: Sharon Poppe

Audio: Antje Eulaers, Sharon Poppe

Photo: Casarosada via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)