2023-05-02 14:54:00
Constitutionalist Marc Uyttendaele (ULB) has added his grain of salt to the intense controversy which has pitted MP Sophie Rohonyi (Défi) since Saturday against Eric de Beukelaer, vicar general of Liège and former spokesperson for the bishops of Belgium. The latter criticized the remarks of the parliamentarian with regard to the extension of the legal deadline for an abortion from 12 to 18 weeks of pregnancy.
In Free of the weekend, Sophie Rohonyi was tough on the position recently expressed by the bishops on this delicate question: “I don’t think they should interfere in debates like these, which should no longer be seen as ethical debates, but as public health issues”.
On his blog, Eric de Beukelaer was indignant at this desire to prevent discussion. A desire which, according to him, would come from “the soft democracy that denigrates the word against the current so as not to have to face the substantive debate”. In addition to public health issues, abortion has an eminently ethical dimension, he added.
The controversy between Sophie Rohonyi (Défi) and Eric de Beukelaer.
Monday, on Twitter, Marc Uyttendaele pointed the finger at this intervention by Eric de Beukelaer. “Shocking remarks by the vicar of Beukelaer regarding MP Rohonyi. Article 268 of the Penal Code prohibits a minister from publicly attacking a law. The law establishes the right to abortion. The clergy must submit to it. It’s not an ethical issue, it’s the rule of law“, he posted on social networks. This position of the constitutionalist has itself sparked a new torrent of comments on the web…
Does the vicar general of Liège indeed fall under criminal law for having criticized the federal deputy? We can seriously doubt it. “The article is in force but I do not recall any conviction on this basisnotes Caroline Sägesser, researcher at Crisp (Centre for socio-political research and information) and specialist in secularism and cults. In addition, the article punishes speeches made in the exercise of the ministry, during sermons. The words of Eric de Beukelaer (which were expressed on his blog) therefore do not fall within the scope of the article.”
”An obsolete provision of the Penal Code”
For Caroline Sägesser, this criminal provision gives way to more fundamental rights.” Many analysts point out that this article is probably incompatible with the principle of freedom of expression protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. Moreover, what is repressed in this article, which already appeared in the first Penal Code in 1867, is the direct attack on the government, on the law. I don’t really see any application to Eric de Beukelaer’s remarks from this angle either. In any case, this provision of the Penal Code seems to me to be obsolete.”
Did Eric de Beukelaer undermine the principle of secularism or the separation of Church and State by speaking about abortion? The Crisp researcher doesn’t think so. “Secularism postulates that a priest is a citizen like any other (and therefore has the right to freedom of expression, Editor’s note)no offense to Master Uyttendaele”, concludes Caroline Sägesser.
Eric de Beukelaer’s text published on his blog in response to Sophie Rohonyi’s interview.
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