Pope Francis to meet sexual abuse victims in Belgium visit

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Pope Francis is expected to meet Belgian victims of clerical sex abuse on Friday as he embarks on a three-day visit to the country partially overshadowed by the Catholic Church's dark past.

The 87-year-old pontiff arrived in Belgium Thursday evening after spending the day in neighbouring Luxembourg, where he made a plea for international diplomacy amid flaring conflicts across the globe.

King Philippe and Queen Mathilde will host the pope Friday at their royal residence, before he meets with academics at the Catholic university of Leuven in Dutch-speaking Flanders -- whose 600th anniversary next year was the official reason for Francis's visit.

But the heart of the Argentine pontiff's 46th trip abroad will arguably be his acknowledgement of priest paedophilia in a country tarred by decades of scandals and cover-ups.

At 6:30 pm (1630 GMT) he will receive 15 victims of clerical sexual assault at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Brussels, a source close to the case told AFP.

The meeting, arranged by the country's bishops' conference after a hard-hitting documentary last year put the scandal back on the front pages, will be held with the "utmost discretion", according to the Belgian church.

The case stems from the confessions of a disgraced bishop 14 years ago, which prompted thousands of victims to come forward.

Some of the testimony in last year's documentary revealed secrets buried for decades, denouncing Church efforts to protect aggressors and difficulties in getting justice.

In an open letter published by Le Soir newspaper this month, they demanded the pope address paedophilia and set up a process for financial reparations.

Francis has made combating sexual assault in the Church one of the main missions of his papacy, and insisted on a "zero tolerance" policy in the wake of wide-reaching abuse scandals around the world.

In a sign of the work yet to be done, the program of an open-air mass concluding Francis's trip on Sunday had to be changed at the last minute after it emerged that the closing hymn was composed by a priest accused of sexual abuse.

The blunder prompted the head of the Belgian bishops' conference, Archbishop Luc Terlinden,