A Spanish Mass

I accompanied N. and her sister, L. to Catholic Mass Sunday morning to view a special ceremony where a young friend and acolyte led the choir and sang. The Mass was in Spanish, and among other things, recognized the national day of Peru (and sang its national anthem!). I haven't lived in a Hispanic country in 34 years, but during that simple, informal Mass, all the warmth, the sense of family, and the delightful and honest humanity of the Hispanics came rushing back to me from those days. It was delightful…and the music was great, too.

The church was in repair; that is, it showed signs of repairs made. Why split hairs? Because little is now happening to finish the works, so the church is covered in primer and spackle. Money is an issue, of course, and many of the churches in Belgium are showing signs of deterioration.

This is not an insignificant building. It is in the middle of Brussels near the Bourse (stock market), an important location as a significant congregation lives nearby. It was built over 100 years ago when it once represented the great wealth and strong religiosity of the Belgians. It is now a bit sad, with its more spectacular features and statutary painted over or simply overlooked. The church's out-buildings, which could easily become valuable housing have been ignored to the point they are thoroughly disreputable.

In a sense, the condition of this church represents the state of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium, where church attendance has fallen precipitously in the last half of the last century. Only about 7 percent of Belgians now claim to attend church weekly. It was over 60 percent in 1960. The clergy is shrinking, money is in short supply, congregates are getting older and fewer in number, and buildings are slowly decaying.

At the nation's formation the Church was a major land owner, wealthy and influential. In a stupendous land-grab in the 1800's, secular Belgium required the Church to sign over its substantial lands, churches, monasteries and seminaries to the state, and in return, the government promised to pay the priests and maintain the property. There is thus a state entity responsible for church repairs and for paying a stipend to the clergy. There is a process whereby Belgium officially recognizes religious faiths, and new arrivals are now claiming their share of the state's attention—and funding. And, like most government promises everywhere, there has been some hedging and fudging.

This is secular country with a history of strongly Catholic kings and political parties. (King Baudouin abdicated for a day to avoid signing legislation granting limited rights to abortion that conflicted with his strong Catholic faith. The legislation passed in his absence.) However, the Church's influence has been shaken by recent political losses. Public support for the Church has been diluted by damaging, and revisited, charges of molestation and pedophilia, and the State points to the drop-off in attendance to justify the shift in its attention to other budgetary and social issues.

The church Sunday was packed. A parallel was easily drawn to the Roman Catholic Church's strength in Hispanic countries. But, northern Europe has become predominantly humanist and no longer seems to be the Church's stronghold of faith and adherents. That's as it will be, but it's difficult to be ambivalent about the Church's decline when you consider its mixed history and incredible contributions to architecture.