Old churches, monasteries, chapels – for many Belgians, places of tranquility and relaxation rather than sites of religious significance. Only three percent of all Belgians describe themselves as practicing Catholics. Consequences for the Preservation of Listed Religious Buildings in the Walloon Region are Possible.
Members of the Socialist Party (PS) spoke out in the Walloon parliament in favor of including all listed churches and chapels in the country in a register and checking their condition and visitor numbers. The data collected in this way should, among other things, provide information about the costs that would be incurred in the long term as a result of necessary restoration work. At the same time, such a register would provide an objective basis for deciding whether the preservation of a place of worship is worthwhile or whether a conversion might make sense, explained MPs Isabelle Simonis and Daniel Senesael, who introduced the proposal to parliament this week.
In the French and German-speaking regions of Belgium, there are a total of around 2.800 buildings under monument protection, including about 380 churches and 200 chapels. According to media reports, the annual costs for the protection of historical monuments are around 38 million euros. According to the study, around five million euros were spent on preserving listed religious sites in 2010. In times of financial crisis, the idea of being able to cut costs by desecrating some churches is apparently tempting to some socialist deputies – especially in light of the declining number of Catholics throughout Belgium.
Delicate questions
According to a representative survey published by the RTBF television station, the number of people who call themselves Catholics has dropped by 20 percent in the past 30 years. Whereas in 1982 around 72 percent of Belgians were still religious, today the figure is only 50 percent. In the same period, the number of self-identified atheists doubled from 24 percent to 42 percent, according to the survey. For young people in particular, the Catholic Church has little significance: about 70 percent of those surveyed who were born after 1984 said they had no connection with it.
According to the spokesman of the Belgian Bishops' Conference, Tommy Scholtes, the reason for the decline is, among other things, the deep crisis surrounding sexual abuse, but also the growing number of Muslims in the country. In addition, they said, people are less and less inclined to get involved with what they see as an institutional institution like the church. Whether this development can be reversed depends, among other things, on the quality of the priests, the quality of those responsible in the parishes and the way in which the church communicates its messages.
Despite a growing social distance to the church: The question of desecration of places of worship is considered sensitive in Belgium as well. In the Walloon parliament, some deputies reacted with irritation to the proposal for such a church register. It is questionable why only religious sites and not all listed buildings in general should be put to the test, criticized members of parliament from the Christian Social Party and the Liberals. One must also ask what the number of visitors says about the cultural and historical value of a building – and thus also about the need to preserve it.