Belgium: Mass attendance rises almost 4% in a year
The Belgian bishops say it is 'too early to speak of a real change in trend' but that vibrant religious communities in urban areas 'exert additional attraction.'
Mass attendance in Belgium rose by almost 4% from 2023 to 2024, according to figures released Tuesday.
New annual statistics, usually released in November but compiled earlier than scheduled this year, indicated that 173,335 people attended Mass on an average Sunday in 2024, 3.6% more than in 2023, when the average attendance was 167,360.
The Belgian bishops’ conference said May 27 that “it is still too early to speak of a real change in trend, which may or may not continue.”
“The growth in attendance appears to be a phenomenon concentrated mainly in urban areas, where vibrant religious communities exert additional attraction,” it commented.
One possible factor in the rise was Pope Francis’ September 2024 visit to Belgium, which generated extensive media coverage. Annual Mass attendance is estimated from a count of the number of people at Masses nationwide on the third Sunday of October, which took place shortly after the papal visit. But the bishops’ conference did not cite the pope’s trip as a reason for the growth in Mass attendance.
Another factor could be an increase in adult baptisms.
The number of adults seeking baptism in Belgium has almost doubled in a decade, from 186 in 2014 to 362 in 2024. The number of adult baptisms is expected to rise again to 536 this year, an almost 50% increase from 2024.
Belgium is a country roughly the size of the U.S. state of Maryland, bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and France. Around half of Belgium’s almost 12 million-strong population is Catholic.
Despite the upward trend in 2024, Mass attendance in Belgium remains well below pre-pandemic levels, when more than 200,000 people attended Sunday Mass.
Other statistics released this week will be less encouraging for Belgian Church leaders.
Child baptisms fell from 34,826 in 2023 to 29,769 in 2024, a year-on-year decline of almost 15%.
Cathobel.be, a news website for Belgium’s French-speaking Catholics, said that “while the trend remains downward, it appears to be slowing down,” noting that child baptisms decreased by nearly 20% between 2022 and 2023.
Belgium has a total fertility rate of 1.4, well below the replacement level of 2.1. But the overall population is steadily increasing due to immigration. The majority of migrants are European, according to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and likely include a substantial number of Catholics.
First Holy Communions also declined in Belgium, from 33,853 in 2023 to 30,523 in 2024, a drop of nearly 10%.
Similarly, Confirmations fell from 29,580 in 2023 to 27,458 in 2024, a 7% decline.
There was also a 7% drop in Catholic weddings, from 5,241 in 2023 to 4,896 in 2024.
Cathobel.be suggested the rate of decline was slowing, given there was a 24% fall in Catholic marriages from 2022 to 2023. The 2022 figure was notably high because of a resumption in weddings after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Catholic funerals continued their steady decline, from 37,207 in 2023, to 35,515 in 2024, down almost 5% in a year.
The statistics released this week did not include the number of requests for “debaptism” in 2024.
When a Catholic asks to be “debaptized” in Belgium, the request is noted in the margin of the Church’s baptismal register, but the baptismal entry is not deleted.
The Catholic Church teaches that “baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark of his belonging to Christ.” While a person can lapse in the practice of the faith, or even renounce it altogether, it is impossible to reverse the effects of baptism.
A record 14,251 people requested “debaptism” in Belgium in 2023, the last year for which figures are available.
While activists have appealed to the European Court of Justice to force the Church to erase their names from baptismal registries, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts issued a letter earlier this year reiterating that it is “not permitted to alter or delete” entries in sacramental registers because they record “foundational historical facts” that must be accurately documented.
The spike in “debaptism” requests in 2023 reflected the impact of the documentary series “Godforsaken,” which prompted an outcry when it was aired in Belgium in September 2023. The series, which highlighted clerical abuse and cover-ups, triggered a parliamentary inquiry.
This week’s statistics also do not include 2024 figures for pilgrimages to Belgium’s four big Marian shrines of Banneux, Beauraing, Oostakker, and Scherpenheuvel.
All four sites have welcomed a growing number of pilgrims since the pandemic. Banneux received 220,000 pilgrims in 2022 and 350,000 in 2023, while Scherpenheuvel saw a rise from 600,000 in 2022 to 800,000 in 2023.
How low can you go? Apparently 186 adult baptisms in an entire year. That's an astonishingly low number. My tiny little parish had about 8 in the last year I believe. Frances was right to call for a missional Church.
But praised by to God for the modest increase in Mass attendance. Hopefully it will be the start of a trend.
I still wonder how these statistics would break out if done at the level of diocese or even at the level of individual churches (which would be possible if the data is stored digitally) since that would allow us to extract more information from the statistics. My guess: there are some strong correlations at that level of granularity that might be unwelcome.