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Religion in Belgium

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A 2006 inquiry in Flanders showed 55% of its inhabitants calling themselves religious, while 36% claimed to believe that God created the world.[1]

Status of recognized denominations

Catholics in Belgium
year Sunday Mass Attendance [2](%) baptism (%)
1967 42.9% 93.6%
1973 32.3% 89.3%
1980 26.7% 82.4%
1985 22.0% -
1990 17.9% 75.0%
1995 13.1% -
1998 11.2% 64.7%
2006 7% weekly Flanders only[3] 56.8%
2009 5 % [4]

Roman Catholicism has traditionally been Belgium's majority religion; being especially strong in Flanders. However, by 2009 Sunday church attendance was 5.4% in Flanders compared to 12.7% in 1998 [5] For the total of Belgium, Sunday church attandance was 5 % in 2009 and 11.2% for the total of Belgium in 1998 [6]. Despite an 6% drop in Sunday church attendance from 11 to 5 % in 9 years, Catholicism nevertheless remains an important force in the Belgian society.

Until 1998, the Roman Catholic Church annually published key figures such as Sunday mass attendance and the number of baptized children. (Refer to the table for an overview 1967 - 2009.) In 2006, the church published the mass attendance figure for the Christmas period being 11.5%, and 7% average weekly (note not only Sunday) mass attendance [7] for the Flanders region. Since 2000, Sunday church attendance in Flanders drops by 0.5% on a yearly basis whereas this rate of decrease was previously 1%.[8]

The second largest religion practiced in Belgium is Islam (6%). There are also small minorities of Protestants, Orthodox, Anglicans and Jews. Belgian law officially recognizes those denominations, as well as the secular organizations (Dutch: vrijzinnige levensbeschouwelijke organisaties, French: organisations laïques). Buddhism is in the process of being recognized under the secular organization standard. Official recognition means that priests (called "counsellors" within the secular organizations) receive a state stipend, and that parents can choose any recognized denomination to provide religious education to their children if they attend a state school.[9]

After attaining autonomy from the federal state level in religious matters, the Flemish regional parliament voted a new Flemish regional decree on recognized religious denominations, installing democratically elected church councils for all recognized religious denominations and made them subject to the same administrative rules as local government bodies - with important repercussions as far as financial accounting and open government are concerned. In 2006, however, the Catholic bishops still appointed candidates to the Catholic Church councils because they had not decided on the criteria for eligibility. That is, they were afraid that Catholic candidates who might get elected would be merely baptized Catholics. By 2008, however, the bishops decided that candidates for the election of the church councils had only to prove that they were over 18, a member of the parish church serving the town or village in which they were residents, and that they were baptized Catholic. Thus normal elections took place.[10]

Hinduism and Sikhism also have growing numbers of adherents in Belgium, but are not recognized by the government. This does not deny them the right to practice their religion, merely the right to have government-style elections and regulations on them.

According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005,[11]

  • 43% of Belgian citizens responded that they believe there is a God.
  • 29% answered that they believe there is some sort of spirit or life-force.
  • 27% answered that they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life-force.

The precise figures are in dispute; however, among some committed people, as it is unclear how many Belgians who say they believe in a God can still be called Christians and how many who call themselves "Christian," but refuse the label "Catholic," have severed all links to the Roman Catholic Church. Possibly Catholic pastors keep records of this, but they are unknown. Also in dispute are how many Catholic Belgians have become deists or have joined one of the several small Protestant churches. Again, it would be up the respective churches to determine this data. In the United States, for example, some people move in and out of churches without giving up their so-called "home church," the church in which they were baptized. So it is hard to discern the church to which they have an allegiance.

History

After the Spanish military conquest of 1592, and until the re-establishment of religious freedom in 1781 by the Patent of Toleration under Joseph II of Austria, Roman Catholicism was the only religion allowed (on penalty of death) in the territories now forming Belgium. However, a small number of Protestant groups managed to survive, at Maria-Horebeke, Dour, Tournai, Eupen and Hodimont.[12]

Religion was one of the differences between the almost solidly Roman Catholic south and the predominantly Protestant north of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, formed in 1815. The union broke up in 1830 when the south seceded to form the Kingdom of Belgium. Roman Catholicism in Belgium's first century was socially such a binding factor that it prevailed over the important difference in languages (Dutch versus French). The loss in importance of religion as a social marker across late 20th century Western Europe, explains to a large extent the current centrifugal forces in Belgium, with language differences (increasingly reinforced by a positive feedback effect on the media) no longer being kept in check by a religious binding factor. If anything, the Catholic Church has acquiesced to these changes by having a Dutch-speaking university (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) and a French-speaking university (Universite Catholique de Louvain).

Until the late 20th century, Roman Catholicism played an important role in Belgian politics. One significant example of this are the so-called "school wars" (Dutch: schoolstrijd, French: guerres scolaires) between the philosophically left-wing parties (Liberals first, Liberals and Socialists later) and the Catholic (later Christian Democrat) party, which took place between 1879 and 1884 and later between 1954 and 1958. Another important controversy happened in 1990 when the very religious Catholic monarch, King Baudouin I, refused to officially ratify with his signature an abortion bill that had already been approved by parliament. The king then asked Prime Minister Wilfried Martens and his government to find a solution, which proved novel. The government declared King Baudouin unfit to fulfill his constitutional duties as monarch for one day, while Government ministers signed the bill in his place,[13] and then proceeded to reinstate the king after the abortion law had come into effect.

In 2002, the then officially recognized Protestant denomination, the United Protestant Church of Belgium,[14] itself the result of mergers in 1839, 1969 and 1979 [15] (consisting of around 100 member churches, usually with a Calvinist or Methodist past) and the until then unsubsidized Federal Synod of Protestant and Evangelical churches (600 member churches in 2008, but still not including all evangelical and charismatic groups outside the Catholic tradition) together formed the Administrative Council of the Protestant and Evangelical Religion (ARPEE in Dutch, CACPE in French), which is now the accepted mouthpiece of Protestantism in all three linguistic communities. Based on a 2001 survey conducted by evangelical sources, charismatic and evangelical associations claim a membership of 4% of the Belgian population (a modest percentage of the total population but allegedly a half percentage point more than that of the current Muslim population, as tallied by non-religious sources).[16]

Freedom of religion

Mosque in Lebbeke
Main article: Freedom of religion in Belgium

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respected this right in practice. However, government officials continued to have the authority to research and monitor religious groups that are not officially recognized. There were a few reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice. Some reports of anti-Semitic or Islamophobic acts are difficult to ascribe to people based on a primary motivation of ethnicity or religious belief, as they are often inextricably linked. Some reports of discrimination against minority religious groups surfaced as well.

See also

References

  1. ^ Inquiry by 'Vepec', 'Vereniging voor Promotie en Communicatie' (Organisation for Promotion and Communication), published in Knack magazine 22 November 2006 p.14 (The Dutch language term 'gelovig' was translated in the text as 'religious', more precisely it is a very common word for believing in particular in any kind of god in a monotheistic sense, and/or in some afterlife.
  2. ^ Kerkpraktijk In Vlaanderen Table 1 page 115 PDF document in Dutch
  3. ^ newsarticle in dutch describing church attendance in Belgium
  4. ^ [1] newsarticle in Dutch describing church attendance in Belgium 5 % en Brussels (3%)
  5. ^ Kerken lopen zeer geleidelijk helemaal leeg newsarticle in Dutch describing church attendance in Flanders
  6. ^ [2] newsarticle in Dutch describing church attendance in Belgium 5 % en Brussels (3%)
  7. ^ news article in Dutch describing church attendance in Belgium
  8. ^ Kerkpraktijk In Vlaanderen Figure 1 page 121 PDF document in Dutch
  9. ^ "Pedagogical Centre of the Orthodox Church in Belgium, which trains religious education teachers for state and local council schools". Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  10. ^ Kerkfabriek van Geel-het Punt. "History of the Catholic Geel Church Council since 2005 (in Dutch)". Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  11. ^ European Union. "Eurobarometer on Social Values, Science and technology 2005 - page 11" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  12. ^ Frank Rooze (inspector of protestant religious education). ""De Reformatie in vogelvlucht" or how Flemish protestantism retreated to the North (in Dutch)". Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  13. ^ Montgomery, Paul L. (April 5, 1990). "Belgian King, Unable to Sign Abortion Law, Takes Day Off". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  14. ^ UPCB. "Website of the United Protestant Church of Belgium (in Dutch)". Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  15. ^ ARPEE/CACPE. "Preface to the CACPE bylaws, with the history of Protestantism in Belgium". Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  16. ^ WEC. "An evangelical view of the religious situation in Belgium (in Dutch)". Archived from the original on 2007-11-13. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
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