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| Pro-life sovereigns: Queen Fabiola, Pope John Paul II, King Baudouin (Danneels walks behind them) |
Two Belgian politicians admit for the first time openly that Cardinal Godfried Danneels tried to convince King Baudouin to sign the law on abortion in 1990. Former politicians Philippe Moureau (PS, Parti Socialiste) and Mark Eyskens (CVP, Flemish Christian Democrats) said this in a documentary for the Flemish Broadcasting Corporation VTM on April 6, 2015 (http://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/135916-25-jaar-abortuswet-boudewijn-onder-druk, at 2:05). According to VTM, cardinal Danneels did not want to comment.
In 1990, the 14 members of the Belgian Government - a coalition led by CVP-Prime Minister Wilfried Martens, signed one of the most liberal abortion bills in the world. King Baudouin, a devout Catholic, refused to sign this bill into law, and was temporarily considered fictitiously "incapacitated" so that the government could have the bill turned into law.
Danneels, rabid liberal and a known pedophile-bishop-protector, was picked by Pope Francis as one of his personal choices for the 2014 Family Synod.
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News comes out at a time the influence of Cardinal Danneels in the Catholic Church is bigger than ever. According to the Flemish newspaper De Standaard (04/04/2015), Danneels (81) is nowadays more in Rome than when he was as archbishop of Mechlin-Brussels. Next month, archbishop André-Joseph Léonard will have to present his resignation letter to the Pope, when he becomes 75. According to De Standaard, two progressive ’poulains’ of cardinal Danneels are in the running to become the new archbishop: bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp (more about him here) and bishop Jozef De Kesel of Bruges (more about him here). Other names are Mgr. Léon Lemmens (auxiliary bishop of Mechelen-Brussel) and Mgr. Jean-Pierre Delville (bishop of Liège), both linked to the multi-religious San Egidio Community.
[Source: A Belgian Reader.]
