Pope promises ‘all help we can’ to victims of sexual abuse by Belgian clergy

Pope Francis has breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness (Andrew Medichini/AP)

Pope Francis has promised to “offer all the help we can” to victims of clergy sexual abuse after people in Belgium told him first-hand of the trauma that shattered their lives and left many in poverty and mental misery.

Francis’s visit to Belgium has been dominated by the abuse scandal, with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo both condemning the Catholic Church’s dreadful legacy of priests raping and molesting children and its decades-long cover-up of the crimes.