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This Belgian king is an outstanding model for Catholic politicians

King Baudouin Statue King Baudouin Statue
King Baudouin Statue, Brussels, Belgium. Adobe Stock

Elections are coming. Abortion is an issue, along with other matters of interest to Catholics, who will judge candidates with Church teachings in mind, hopefully.

Here is a good example of how a Catholic holding legitimate influence in the lawmaking process should approach questions that have moral significance.

The late King Baudouin I of Belgium had to decide if his personal, Catholic beliefs should affect his official actions and what price he was willing to pay to assert his beliefs. God bless his decision — and his courage.

He made his decision in 1990 when Belgium’s national legislature voted to legalize abortion.

Born in 1930, the older son of King Leopold III and Queen Astrid, a granddaughter of the Swedish king, Baudouin was reared in a devoutly Catholic family. It was rumored that, as a young man, he wished to abandon his royal title and become a monk, but Pope Pius XII himself advised him to make serving the Belgian people his priority.

Succeeding his father as king in 1951, service to his people, especially the forgotten, indeed was his priority. He married a Spanish aristocrat, Queen Fabiola, who was as fervently Catholic as he.

For Baudouin, life had its struggles. When Germany overtook Belgium in the Second World War, he, along with his father and siblings, were taken prisoners. For several years, none knew what the next day might bring. He realized the value of life and the evil of destroying life.

He and his wife were unable to bear children. The queen said several miscarriages made them both appreciate the treasure that is each person, especially each infant.

Siding with the Church

When the Belgian parliament voted to allow abortion, Baudouin was on the spot. The constitution required that any legislative act have the monarch’s approval before becoming law.

Belgium’s sovereign is “above” politics, the symbol and instrument of national unity. The monarch is expected to remain silent on all political subjects. Since 1830, no Belgian sovereign had denied consent when the parliament acted.

So, history, tradition, the spirit of the constitution, leading politicians and popular opinion were against the king when he announced that because of his personal convictions, guided by the teachings of his Church, he could not approve any law that permitted abortion.

This was the king’s reasoning. Baudouin was not the only figure involved in Belgian law-making, but he was a critical figure, an essential means to the end. He could not remove his responsibility to act, in every aspect of his life, in accord with his Catholic beliefs.

He could not enable abortion, since the Church teaches that abortion deliberately destroys an innocent human life, a scientific fact. The Church echoes the words of Christ. Christ is God.

Standing firm

Tempers flared. People argued. Many demanded that Baudouin renounce the throne in favor of his brother. Some called for the abolition of the monarchy. The king stood his ground.

Invoking another article in the constitution, pro-abortion figures in parliament secured enough votes to declare Baudouin unable to reign, and the abortion law took effect. But then his brother and heir and his brother’s son, the present Belgian King Philippe, upset the apple cart, refusing to succeed Baudouin if he were driven out because of his Catholic principles.

The politicians had a real crisis on their hands. Public opinion turned in favor of Baudouin. He was reinstated.

Baudouin died suddenly in 1993. Many leaders admired his courage. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II never attended foreign funerals, regardless of who died — a president, a king, a Nobel Prize recipient, the discoverer of a miracle drug, whoever — but she flew to Brussels to King Baudouin’s Requiem Mass, a striking sign of her respect. When Pope St. John Paul II visited Belgium, he visited King Baudouin’s tomb to pray for the repose of the soul of, and to, the courageous monarch.

To be logical, every Catholic officeholder should follow the king’s reasoning.