In Belgium, new testimonies from victims relaunch the scandal of forced adoptions and once again cast a shadow over the Catholic Church in Flanders. According to a podcast broadcast this week by the Flemish media HLN, nearly 30,000 children were taken from their mothers by religious people between the 1950s and 1980s and they were sometimes even sold to their adoptive family.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Brussels, Laura Broulard
The testimonies are heartbreaking. Firstly, mothers who became pregnant outside of marriage were placed by their families in religious institutions to hide their pregnancy. After childbirth, most often under general anesthesia and sometimes in France under X, the Church took their children from them, then sold them for the equivalent of 250 to 750 euros, to Belgian adoptive families.
The investigation also reveals sexual violence and forced sterilizations of young women. We also hear the words of adopted children who describe their struggle to find their origins when most of the files have disappeared.
The affair had already emerged in 2015, prompting the Church to apologize, but no major independent investigation has been launched until now. This week, Yngvild Ingels, federal deputy, herself born under X in the north of France then transferred to a Flemish family for a hundred euros, called the government to action. “ What was presented as charity was actually human trafficking “, she said in the House, her voice choked with emotion.
The bishops’ spokesperson, Tommy Scholtès, indicated that the Church does not accept the expression ” children purchased “. “ Families awaiting adoption thanked the nuns when they received the child (…), they contributed financially to the functioning of religious communities “, he told AFP.
This scandal resurfaces just a few months after another documentary shook Flanders by revealing testimonies of sexual violence within the Catholic Church.
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