Its Church is dogged by empty pews,
scandals and a hierarchy beguiled by the latest social trends. Soon it
could become little more than a heritage agency for ancient churches Belgium is one of those countries that show in stark detail the
problems facing the Catholic Church in the developed world.
Like Ireland
or Quebec, it is an example of a once intensely Catholic society where
the faith has very rapidly collapsed. The same symptoms as elsewhere –
empty churches, scandals, infighting, a hierarchy that passively goes
along with current social trends – are as obvious in Belgium as anywhere
else in Europe.