André-Joseph Léonard

André-Joseph Léonard visiting the parish of Terbank Heverlee in February 2012

On 18 January 2010, Léonard was appointed Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels by Pope Benedict XVI,[5] replacing the retiring Cardinal Danneels.[6]

When named Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Léonard chose to drop "Mutien" and instead appended "Joseph" to his name, in reference to Saint Joseph, patron saint of Belgium.[7]

On 5 January 2011, Léonard was appointed among the first members of the newly created Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.[8]

In response to Léonard's appointment, Deputy Prime Minister Laurette Onkelinx, who is also the country's health minister, said, "Church and State are separate in Belgium, but when there are problems in our society, all the social partners sit down around a table, including representatives of secularism and of religion. Cardinal Danneels was a man of openness, of tolerance and was able to fit in there. Léonard has already regularly challenged decisions made by our parliament." She added: "Concerning AIDS, he's against the use of condoms even while people are dying from it every day. He is against abortion and euthanasia ... The pope's choice could undermine the compromise that allows us to live together with respect for everyone."

The Socialist Party said it "insists that Archbishop Léonard respects democratic decisions taken by the institutions of our country. For the Socialist Party, the rights and duties that people take on democratically take precedence over religious traditions and commandments, without any exception.".[9]

In April 2010, the then-Bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, retired and admitted that for years he had abused a nephew. In June 2010, police raided both the palace of the archbishop and the home of retired Cardinal Godfried Danneels. The offices of an independent commission set up by the newly installed Léonard in early 2010 to look into cases of sexual abuse were also raided. At the time, Léonard said the move showed that the Church wanted to "resolutely turn a page on a very painful" topic.[10] There was no suggestion Léonard was involved in a coverup (having been in the office for half a year), but he was criticized for saying that full prosecution of elderly abusive priests was unnecessary given their age and the effect public prosecutions would have on victims.[6]

The raids were not well received by the Catholic Church, even raising the ire of the Pope.[11] Pope Benedict XVI in a letter addressed to Archbishop Leonard said that: "I wish to express to you, dear Brother in the Episcopate, as well as to all the Bishops of Belgium, my closeness and my solidarity at this moment of sadness, in which, with certain surprising and deplorable modalities, searches have been carried out, including in the Cathedral of Mechelen and in the premises where the Belgian Episcopate was meeting in Plenary Session. During this meeting, there should have been, inter alia, aspects related to the abuse of minors by clergy. I myself have repeated many times that these serious facts should be dealt with by the civil order and by the canonical order in the mutual respect of the specificity and autonomy of each. In this sense, I hope that justice will follow its course by guaranteeing the rights of individuals and institutions, with respect for the victims."[12]

• In November 2010 Léonard's spokesman, Juergen Mettepenningen, quit after only three months. Mettepenningen said at a press conference that "Monsignor Leonard at times acts like a motorist driving on the wrong side of a freeway who thinks all the other motorists are wrong."[13][14]
• In December 2010, speaking at a parliamentary commission on child abuse in Belgium, Léonard's predecessor, Danneels (who had been archbishop from 1979 until 2010 during which revelations about the sexual abuse crisis first became public) admitting his mistakes, stated "for too long the church thought only about itself and about its priests and now it is time to think about the victims of sexual abuse". When Léonard was asked about whether the Catholic Church would contribute to a general compensation fund set up for victims of sexual abuse (including those not abused by Catholic priests), he refused stating that "The civil court must determine the compensation and the offender must pay." The commission was surprised as they thought that Léonard would build on Danneels' testimony and use the opportunity to try to heal the poor relations between the government and the Catholic Church over the sex abuse crisis. Léonard added that he expected representatives of other "respectable professions," like medicine and sports, to contribute as well "because abuse is not a monopoly of the church."[15] Léonard then donated to a fund "not because we are obliged to do that, but because we want to show solidarity, as we also regularly do for victims of floods or epidemics."[16]
• In October 2010, Léonard was criticised by HIV activists, gay advocates, and political party operatives for rejecting the idea that AIDS is "a punishment from God", instead "this epidemic is sort of intrinsic justice, not at all a punishment." He continued saying that "All I'm saying is that sometimes there are consequences linked to our actions" and that "HIV carriers merit respect" and "must not suffer discrimination." "I believe this is a totally decent, honourable and respectable stance."[17]
• Léonard said that retired priests suspected of paedophilia should be spared canonical action (removal from the priesthood or laicization), which he termed "a sort of vengeance." Leonard stated of the priests, "if they're no longer working, if they have no responsibilities, I'm not sure that exercising a sort of vengeance that will have no concrete result is humane."[13]

In 2007, Belgium was facing one of the longest and most intense political crises in its 178 years of existence. After the Belgian general election of 2007, Belgium entered a period of communitarian tensions and political instability, mostly caused by the different opinions about the need and the extent of a state reform.

On 9 July 2008, Bishop Léonard published an open letter on the website of the Diocese of Namur entitled The end of Belgium? (French: La fin de la Belgique?).[18] He wrote that Belgium will not fall apart:

I hear questions about the future of this country. Will it burst soon? Frankly, I think not. Realism requires us to stay together, Flemings, Walloons and inhabitants of Brussels. If we need months to negotiate the formation of a government, how many years would we need to resolve issues raised by a division of the country: the status of Brussels, the fate of the monarchy, not to mention the innumerable legal and tax problems. We will stay together. Despite our cultural differences, we still have so many things in common. Political conflicts are sometimes acute. But when French speakers and Dutch speakers meet on social, educational and commercial terms, things often happen well. But what is likely is that the Belgian government will federalise even more. It's just what we are already living very peacefully, in terms of the life of the Church. We are one Episcopal Conference, in a beautiful fraternal harmony, but each language group has its own meetings and its specific guidelines.

Léonard asked Walloons and French-speaking inhabitants of Brussels to renounce their superiority complex of the French language against Dutch-speaking Belgians. Bishop Léonard himself is a proficient speaker of Dutch.

If then the French-speaking Belgians, naturally more attached to a united Belgium than the Flemish, want, quite legitimately, Belgium to survive, it is not enough that they fly the Belgian flag in the streets. They must renounce any linguistic superiority complex. They must learn, each according to his social role, to know and to love the language and culture of their northern neighbors.

The letter was published the same month in the Dutch Catholic magazine Katholiek Nieuwsblad.[19]

In an April 2007 interview for the weekly Télé Moustique, Léonard was asked about his position on homosexuality and described homosexual behaviour as "abnormal".[20][21]

The same as Freud: it is an imperfectly developed stage of human sexuality which contradicts its inner logic. Homosexuals have encountered a blockage in their normal psychological development, rendering them abnormal. I know that in a few years, I will risk prison by saying this, but it could offer me vacations.

As a consequence, Léonard was charged with homophobia under Belgium's 2003 Anti-Discrimination Act, after gay activists have said he sought to "stigmatize" homosexuals. Due to the criticisms that followed his interview, Bishop Léonard quickly clarified that it is their behaviour that is abnormal, not their very person.

In April 2009, the Belgian courts ruled that Léonard's comments were not severe enough to be considered slander or discrimination.[22]

"Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite," Léonard said in an interview for a Belgian television station. He added that he would "never call anorexia patients abnormal."[23]

In April 2013, Léonard was doused with water from bottles shaped like the Virgin Mary by four topless FEMEN activists while participating in a debate with philosophy professor Guy Haarscher on the subject of blasphemy and freedom of speech at the Université libre de Bruxelles.[24][25] The archbishop remained in silent prayer during the incident.[26]