World
Pope meets homeless and undocumented in Brussels
As part of his trip to Belgium, Pope Francis made a surprise visit to Saint Gilles where he met with homeless and undocumented people.
In a surprise change to his schedule, Pope Francis met with homeless and undocumented people in Brussels’ church of Saint-Gilles on Saturday morning. He learned about their lives over croissants and coffee.
10 people gathered around a table at the church of Saint Gilles in the centre of the city where they usually receive their breakfast outside.
The table was moved into the church to escape the rain. The group chatted with Pope Francis about their experiences and challenges.
They got a laugh from the pope when they gave him a gift of beer made by the parish to raise funds for charity, four bottles of La Biche de Saint Gilles.
Among the group was a migrant who made his way on a boat across the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa and then was thrown in prison.
He told the Pope he lost his will to pray. He has now found his faith again.
Father Benjamin Kabongo, a Franciscan friar who works with the homeless at Saint Gilles, said it was a very strong gesture for the pope to come and listen to these people that the world does not pay attention to.
Shortly after, he left for the Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, where he addressed local bishops, priests and the Catholic community.
People read out letters in which they challenged the Pope and shared questions on various aspects of the Catholic church.
Responding to criticisms
Just a day earlier, Francis also received public criticisms from the Belgian king, prime minister and the rector of the Catholic university in Leuven.
The criticisms included the church’s cover-up of clergy sexual abuse to its refusal to respond to demands of women and LGBTQ+ Catholics for a place in the church.
Francis met with the people most harmed by the Catholic Church in Belgium — the men and women who were raped and molested by priests as children and the single mothers who were forced to give up their newborns for adoption to avoid the stigma of raising them out of wedlock.
Luc Sels, the rector of Leuven Catholic University, told the pope that the abuse scandals had so weakened the church’s moral authority that it would do well to reform, to the point of ordaining women as priests, if it wants to regain its relevance.
Through it all, Francis expressed his remorse, begged forgiveness and promised to do everything possible to make sure such abuses never occur again.
“This is our shame and humiliation,” he said in his first public remarks on Belgian soil.
Pope Francis is on a four day trip to Luxembourg and Belgium.
World
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World
Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’
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Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about U.S. acquiring the island.
Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that the island’s “future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”
“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.
TRUMP SAYS US IS MAKING MOVES TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND ‘WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT’
Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s push to take over the Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.
“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela after the historic capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.
“We don’t want to have Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. “We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.”
Trump said the U.S. is in control of Venezuela after the capture and extradition of Maduro.
Nielsen has previously rejected comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying that his island was looking to improve its relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.
A “Make America Go Away” baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, is arranged in Sisimiut, Greenland, on March 30, 2025. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
FROM CARACAS TO NUUK: MADURO RAID SPARKS FRESH TRUMP PUSH ON GREENLAND
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.
That same day, Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook that Greenland was “not an object of superpower rhetoric.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stands next to Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a visit to the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen on April 28, 2025. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
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White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland “should be part of the United States.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.
“The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
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