An overview of the Church in Belgium

By Lisa Zengarini

Christianity first arrived in the territory of today's Belgium during the 4th century. Its first resident bishop was Saint Servasius who led the Diocese of Tongeren between 346 and 359 AD. In these early years the Christian faith spread in the Gallo-Roman cities thus beginning to define the ecclesiastical geography of the territory with the Diocese of Tongeren-Maastricht-Liège, included in the Ecclesiastical Province of Cologne, Germany, in the east and the Diocese of Cambrai in the centre and the Diocese of Tournai, in the west, both included in the Ecclesiastical Province of Reims, France.

Saint Willibrord of Utrecht

Christianity further took hold in the 7th century thanks to Scottish, Irish, and Anglo-Saxon monks, including Saint Willibrord of Utrecht (658-739), the “Apostle of the Frisians” and the patron saint of the Benelux countries.  

The monks built several monasteries, which soon became important economic, cultural and missionary centres around which many Belgian cities thrived, including Ghent, Mons, Nivelles, Mechelen, Ronse, Leuze, Andenne, St. Hubert, Stavelot, Amay, Saint-Trond, Saint-Ghislain, Soignies. The assassination of Bishop Saint Lambert of Tongeren-Maastricht, in Liège in 705 AD, transformed the then small village into an important place of pilgrimage and a big city where the see of the diocese was later transferred. The city gained further religious and political importance after year 1000. This period witnessed a great religious and cultural effervescence. The influence of the Church on society grew, as testified by the foundation of numerous monasteries and the great mobilization for the first Crusade led by Godfrey of Bouillon. Two bishops of Liège became Popes: Frederick of Lorraine (Stephen IX) and James Pantaléon (Urban IV).

Spiritual vitality

The urban development of Europe between the 12th and 13th centuries coincided with the birth of new religious orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, Carmelites) who established themselves in the heart of several Belgian cities. It also saw the diffusion from the Netherlands of the beguinages, semi-monastic communities of lay unmarried or widowed women devoted to prayer and charitable works for the poor. In this context new forms of spirituality flourished and were further enhanced by Sister Hadewijch, Saint Lutgard of Tondres and by Saint Juliana, promoter of the Feast of Corpus Christi, first celebrated in Liège in 1246.  The Belgian Church received new impetus from the "Devotio Moderna", the Catholic spiritual renewal movement that spread from the Netherlands, to Germany, Flanders and Italy between the 14th and 15th centuries.

The foundation of the Catholic University of Louvain dates back to this period. The prestigious academic institution was founded in 1425 by Pope Martin V at the behest of Duke John IV of Brabant, and was to become one of the most important centres of theological thought of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in the 16th century.

To counter the expansion of the Protestant Reformation, King Philip II of Spain decided to reorganize the Church in the territory, then Spanish Netherlands, and imposed the Inquisition. In 1679 King Charles II requested and obtained from Pope Innocent XI that the region be dedicated to Saint Joseph who would thus become the patron saint of Belgium.

At the end of the 18th century numerous ecclesiastical assets were confiscated or destroyed, first by Emperor Joseph II of Habsburg, as part of his ecclesiastical policy aimed at reducing the authority of the Catholic Church in the Habsburg Empire, and then during the French Revolution.

In 1801, the Concordat signed between the Papacy and Napoleon and the Bulls “Ecclesia Christi” and “Qui Christi Domini” reorganized the Belgian Church prefiguring the future ecclesiastical organization of the independent Kingdom of Belgium. 

Liberal and social Catholicism in Belgium

Its independence, achieved after the Belgian Revolution in 1830 was recognized by the Papacy thanks to the good offices of Cardinal Engelbert Sterckx, Archbishop of Malines, who managed to convince Pope Gregory XVI to accept its liberal Constitution.

In 1832 the Pope made Belgium a new Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Province. In the new political context, Belgian liberal Catholicism inspired by the French Catholic priest and thinker Félicité Robert de La Mennais (1782-1854) emerged and by the end of the century, after a brief period of tension between Church and State (the so-called "School War" - "Guerre scolaire") a new Catholic Party emerged as a leading political force.

After the First World War, between 1920 and 1925 Belgium hosted the historic "Malines Conversations", which for the first time brought together Catholic and Anglican scholars to discuss a series of crucial issues that have divided the two Churches since King Henry VIII’s schism in the 16th century.

In the 1930s a young Catholic priest, Father Edouard Froidure (1899-1971) gave impulse to Belgian social Catholicism by launching a number of social initiatives for underprivileged children and youth, including the Stations de Plein-air and Les Petits Riens. He continued his tireless fight against poverty until his sudden death in 1971.

During the Second World War, the Belgian bishops took a clear stand against collaborationism and pro-Nazi groups in the country.

Role of the Belgian Church in Vatican Council II

The Belgian Church played a crucial role at the Second Vatican Council. One of its most influential exponents, Cardinal Leo Jozef Suenens, Archbishop of Malines-Brussels was a leading voice advocating for reform in the Church. A renowned theologian who had also been rector of Louvain University, he is considered to be a decisive force behind the Conciliar documents ‘Lumen Gentium’ and ‘Gaudium et Spes’.

Popes’ visits

Belgium was visited twice by Saint John Paul II: the first time from 16 to 21 May, 1985 on the occasion of his Apostolic Journey to Benelux (11-21 May), the second on 3-4 June 1995 for the beatification of the Belgian missionary Father Damiano de Veuster, later canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

A changing Church in a changing society

Similarly to other Western countries, over the last six decades Belgian society has witnessed a deep cultural and religious transformation: on the one hand, it has become a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country. On the other hand, it is now a secularized society with fewer practicing Catholics, a significant decline in vocations, and more people dissenting from Catholic moral teachings. This is also testified by the legalization of abortion (1990), and the new laws on euthanasia (legal since 2002) and homosexual marriages (legal since 2003).

Decline of religious practice and vocations

According to the latest annual report on the Church in Belgium published by the Episcopal Conference (CEB), in 2023 50% of Belgians identified as Catholica, compared to almost 53 percent recorded in 2018. However, data also show that religious practice and church attendance is a lot lower. In 2022, 8.9% of Belgians declared that they regularly attend Mass (compared to around 50% in the 1960s). The decline in religious practice is less pronounced in the capital Brussels, thanks to a strong foreign presence.

At the same time, in recent years the Church in Belgium has recorded a rise of Catholics asking to be “debaptized”. As for participation in baptisms, first communions and confirmations, religious weddings and funerals, the decline trend stopped after the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, pilgrimages have resumed. In 2022, the country's four Marian shrines (Scherpenheuvel, Oostakker, Banneux et Beauraing) totalled 1,270,000 visitors.  

The decrease of church attendance has also led to the closure or sale of several Catholic churches. Between 2018 and 2022, 131 churches were closed while, since 2010, 30 churches have also been handed over to other Christian denominations (mainly Orthodox).

Another reason for concern is the aging of religious men and women, due to fewer in vocations. In 2018, in the 278 Flemish-speaking and 101 French-speaking communities between 70% and 80% were over 70 years old.

Resilience and changes within the Church in Belgium

On the other hand, the Belgian Church has shown a certain resilience in the face of these challenging changes: it has increased its digital offering, especially since the pandemic, which is proving successful, many volunteers, contribute to its  charitable and pastoral works and lay faithful have responded positively in the 2021-2024 synodal process.

Demographic changes in the Belgian society have also brought about changes within the Catholic Church in the country: over the years, other language communities resulting from immigration have added to the three French-speaking, Flemish and German-speaking communities. In 2021 there were around 150 foreign-speaking Catholic communities (especially Polish, Filipino, and Ukrainian) and about one fifth of the priests, deacons and parish assistants come from abroad (mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony).

Abuse scandals

The Belgian Catholic Church's commitment to the protection of minors dates back to 1995 when the Bishops established an independent commission tasked with addressing all cases that are no longer prosecutable by civil authorities because statute-limited, and intensified in the wake of the public outcry over the Dutroux case, the country's notorious paedophile arrested in 1996 for kidnapping and raping six girls and teenagers, killing four of them.

In 1997, Cardinal Godfried Daneels, then Archbishop of Malines-Brussels, established a hotline for the victims and in 2000 another commission was established to deal with complaints of sexual abuse by priests.

After the Vangheluwe case, the bishop of Bruges who resigned in 2010 after admitting to having abused his young nephew for over a dozen years, the bishops gave a further decisive impulse to the fight against abuse in the Church. After the scandal broke out, the Bishops published a pastoral letter in which they admitted that Church leaders in the country had not adequately addressed the problem, acknowledged its grave consequences, apologized to the victims and pleaded  for "a culture of truth and justice". Following the Vangheluwe case the bishops announced more stringent criteria in the selection of candidates to the priesthood and stricter measures to counter abuses of power.

In 2016, the bishops issued their first report on cases of sexual abuse in the Belgian Church based on the testimonies of victims collected between 2012-2015 in the Church’s listening centres. 80 percent of the complaints referred to cases that had happened more than 30 years earlier. 71 percent of the victims were men, and the abusers were practically always (in 95 percent of cases) men. On that occasion the bishops reiterated their total commitment to support the victims and prevent abuse.

The Belgian Church once again came under public scrutiny in December 2023, after the broadcast of a podcast by the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws entitled “Kinderen van de Kerk” (“Children of the Church”) with interviews with mothers and their children given up for adoption by Catholic institutions in exchange of large sums of money.  Again, the bishops, who had already apologized in 2015 in Parliament, expressed their compassion for the pain and trauma of the victims, and called for an independent investigation into the conditions described by the women involved.