CATHOLIC CHURCH IN BELGIUM RAPIDLY LOSING ITS PRESENCE IN SOCIETY

Last year, for the first time, the ratio of children being baptized was less than 50 percent. 

In other words, the majority of the Belgian parents does not want to have the traditional relationship with the Church anymore. 

Although religion is not just to be measured with statistics, these figures seem to confirm the diminishing interest of the Belgian population in the Roman Catholic Church. 

Since 2010, the decline in Baptism has been the sharpest in the Brussels diocese (32%) and in Antwerp (31%). Only in the Ghent area has the number of Baptisms remained relatively stable, with a decrease of 10%. 

The figures are part of an ongoing survey of the Belgian Bishops Conference in cooperation with the University of Louvain. The official results are expected to be published later this year. The purpose of the survey is to gain more insight in the religious life of the Belgian Catholics.

Over the last decades there has been a growing secularization of Belgium’s society. 

Church attendance gradually dropped to less than 10 percent.

But the trend is also seen in socio-political and ethical changes. The approval of new abortion and euthanasia laws is seen to be proof of the shift towards liberal stances of the population. 

In contrast to the Roman Catholic Church, Belgium witnesses a growth of Evangelical Churches and Muslim communities. The increase of the number of Muslims is mainly due to natural growth and immigration.

But newcomers from other countries are also the most important cause for evangelical churches to grow: many of the new communities have their origins in African countries; in particular, Christians arriving in Belgium from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana establish churches in the larger cities.

A spokesman of the Bishops Conference, Geert De Kerpel, acknowledged the drop, saying: 'Like any other organization, we would prefer a growth rather than a decline, but we will not start a promotional campaign.  In the society we see an evolution from a church to which people belonged automatically to a group of people that choose consciously to be part of the church. When people are really convicted they specifically decide to have their children baptised and they will stimulate them to belong to the church.'

That statement and the indifference of the Bishops explains the reason why the Church in Belgium is rapidly evaporating with little, if any, hope for the future in sight.

Sadly, this is the case in many European countries.

The trend is beginning to appear elsewhere in the world, especially in Central and Latin American countries.

One wonders how soon and how quickly the American Church will follow suit.