Children are sold by the Catholic Church to adoptive families for large sums of money without their mothers’ knowledge. In the podcast of the Belgian newspaper ‘Kinderen van de Kerk’ (Children of the Church, ed.), both the mothers and some of the adopted witnesses spoke about this for the first time. Het Laatste Nieuws. It is said that approximately 30 thousand children were sold for between 10,000 and 30,000 Belgian francs, which is equivalent to 250 – 750 euros at the current exchange rate. However, the events must have occurred over a period of time from the end of World War II to the 1980s. For what happened, the Episcopal Conference publicly apologized to the victims in the Flemish Parliament in 2015.
Child sold by church scandal in Belgium
Pregnant and unmarried women were placed in Catholic institutions where they were subjected to humiliation and even sexual abuse. The newborns were then separated from their mothers immediately after birth and delivered. Some women were given general anesthesia during birth, while others were made to wear masks so they could not see their children. But there’s more: Some single mothers were sterilized, while others were forced to sign a document saying they were giving up their children. However, some were told that their children were stillborn.
Debby Mattys, 57, spent more than 20 years of her life searching for her birth mother after most of the records surrounding her birth and adoption were either not stored properly or were destroyed. “My mother was 18 when she had an unwanted pregnancy,” she told Het Laaste Nieuws. In response to the testimonies, the bishops expressed their compassion for the victims’ pain and trauma, the Brussels Times reported. The church is calling for an independent investigation into the conditions described by the women involved.
In 2015, the Episcopal Conference apologized to victims of forced adoptions in Catholic institutions in a speech to the Flemish Parliament. Faced with the new revelations, Belgian bishops expressed their condolences for the suffering of the victims and called for an independent investigation into the circumstances described in the collected testimonies.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
