Devastated vineyard in Belgium and Netherlands

Catholic Church Conservation ^ | 16 January 2005 | Gillibrand

[Gillibrand]

Augustinian Church in Antwerp, Belgium

becomes music centre. This is a report of the opening this month. It is now called Amuz (Antwerp Music). This is their advertising.

"He sees again music in the Church". Nothing else to do but weep.

This Augustinian Church in Utrecht, Netherlands however is thriving. The nearby St Monica's Church bearing the patronage of St Augustine's mother was not so lucky. It was closed on 25 June 1972 after a Pontifical Mass celebrated by Cardinal Alfrink.

[Gillibrand]

Photos and comment on even more closed Churches in Belgium and the Netherlands

[livius]

Very sad. I don't read Dutch, so I wasn't able to read most of the material in the links, but I got the general idea.

Of course, Belgium and the Netherlands both have had some of the most "liberal" bishops in the Church, something that always leads to the death and disappearance of the local churches in their dioceses, a fact ignored by them and by Rome itself until recently.

In Spain, the diocese that is booming is Madrid - with an extremely conservative Cardinal Archbishop (Ruoco). On the other hand, Barcelona, which had a politically oriented leftist bishop who was so busy being courting Catalan nationalists that he never had time for the Gospel, had NO vocations and has the lowest rate of Mass attendance in Spain. (Oddly enough, now that he is no longer in charge of that diocese, the former bishop has become quite conservative and supportive of the Pope. Too late to save his diocese, though; hopefully his successor will do better.)

[Theoden]

It is so very sad to see those pictures. There is a new family at my church who just immigrated from the Netherlands. They are such great people! I think that the liberal laws in Europe are forcing a lot of the good conservatives/Christians to flee to other countries, ie. the US, Australia, etc...I do think however, that within the next 10-20 years, those churches that are left will start filling up again. As more Europeans are persecuted by the growing Muslim minority (whether they identify themselves as Christian or not), they will start rethinking things, and come back to God. They have not been persecuted for so long. Not only that, but we have just the right pope for this time, and Benedict is having a profound affect on those who listen to him.

The Knights of Columbus are spreading to Europe now, starting in Poland, and will help those who are still faithful considerably. There is still hope, but it will take a while.

[jjmcgo]

The only defense against Islam is Christianity, which took the last century off.