Belgium’s prime minister has blasted the Pope for the Catholic Church’s horrific legacy of clerical sex abuse and cover-ups, in a blistering welcome at the start of Francis’s visit.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo demanded “concrete steps” to come clean with the past and put victims’ interests ahead of those of the institution.

The speech was one of the most pointed ever directed at the pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keep outrage out of the public speeches.

But even King Philippe had strong words for Francis, demanding the Church work “incessantly” to atone for the crimes and help victims heal.

Their tone underscored just how raw the abuse scandal still is in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have devastated the hierarchy’s credibility and contributed to an overall decline in Catholicism and the influence of the once-powerful Catholic Church.

Francis applauded at the end of Mr de Croo’s speech, and was expected to meet victims in private later.

“Today, words alone do not suffice. We also need concrete steps,” Mr de Croo said.

“Victims need to be heard. They need to be at the centre. They have a right to truth. Misdeeds need to be recognised,” he said in front of an audience of royals, church officials, diplomats and politicians at Laeken Castle, the residence of Belgium’s royal family.

“When something goes wrong we cannot accept cover-ups,” Mr de Croo said.

“To be able to look into the future, the Church needs to come clean on its past.”

Revelations of Belgium’s horrific abuse scandal have dribbled out in bits over a quarter of a century, punctuated by a bombshell in 2010, when the country’s longest-serving bishop, Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, was allowed to resign without punishment after admitting he had sexually abused his nephew for 13 years.

Francis only defrocked Vangheluwe earlier this year, in a move clearly designed to remove a lingering source of outrage among Belgians before his visit.

Outrage about Church sex abuse was reignited last year, when a four-episode Flemish documentary showed Belgian victims telling their stories on camera.

Godvergeten (Godforsaken) aired on public broadcaster VRT in the weeks surrounding a royal visit to the Vatican during which Francis was invited to Belgium.

For the first time, Flemish viewers at home saw victims explain the scope of the scandal in their community, the depravity of the crimes, and the systematic cover-up by the Catholic hierarchy.

Amid the public outrage that ensued, both a Flanders parliamentary committee and Belgium’s federal parliament opened official inquests and heard months of evidence from victims, experts and the Catholic hierarchy.

Their testimonies cast new attention on a scandal that had already been blamed for a steep decline in the Catholic Church over a generation in Belgium, where church authorities have stopped publishing weekly Mass attendance figures as the monthly rate sits in the single digits.

The pope also referred to abuse in his remarks, insisting that the Church was “addressing firmly and decisively” the problem by implementing prevention programmes, listening to victims and accompanying them to heal.

But after the astonishing dressing down by the prime minister and king, Francis went off-script to express the shame of the Church for the scandal and voice his commitment to ending it.

“The Church must be ashamed and ask forgiveness and try to resolve this problem, and put all the possibilities in place so that this doesn’t happen again,” Francis said.

“For even one (victim), we must ask forgiveness.”

Victims, however, have demanded the Church do far more, including implementing robust reparations programmes to compensate them for their trauma and pay for the lifelong therapy many need.

Some penned a letter demanding such a reparations programme, which they planned to deliver to Francis in their private meeting.