New small private traditional catholic high school in
'ultra-progressive' Belgium needs your help
 |
| (Only a very small part of the buildings being currently used.) |
For fans of Asterix comic books, the storyline might sound familiar: “All of Belgium is occupied, either by atheism or by a Church that has been on the international avant-garde of ‘progressivism’ for at least 50 years. (As usual, ‘progressivism’ leads to collapse.). Not to mention, of course, the abuse scandals and their cover-up. All of Belgium? No, not all of Belgium. Some small pockets of resistance by traditional catholics still exist.”
In fact, these pockets are growing, and in September last year a new (traditional) catholic high school was founded by concerned catholic parents: Sint-Ignatius. The religious formation of the children is taken care of by the Servi Jesu et Mariae (SJM), a Congregation of Pontifical Right recognized by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. Needless to say, they were lambasted by the secular media. A school where they still offer weekly Mass, and where the rosary is prayed daily? These must be ‘ultra-catholic’, extreme-conservative, even potentially dangerous people! The reactions by various church representatives and their network of catholic schools were, to put it mildly, hardly more enthusiastic. After an initial positive inspection and recognition by the ministry of education, a new media campaign last week prompted the minister of education (of the Christian-democratic party) to send her inspection again to the school.Nowadays, the catholic schools in Flanders (the densely populated Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium) are still attended by 75% of Flemish children. However, the head of these schools, Lieven Boeve, former dean of the faculty of theology of the (formerly catholic) University of Leuven, wants to turn these catholic schools into ‘schools of dialogue’. Having attended one of these so-called catholic schools myself, even before the ‘dialogue-schools’ project was started, I can assure you that there’s not much catholic about these schools at all. And when I was young, at least they didn’t yet offer sex-education for toddlers. (Yes, for toddlers.)That being said, this new traditional catholic school needs your help. They started in september 2015, but they’re currently too small to receive government funding and they’re struggling to make ends meet. Any help is appreciated, just look for the Paypal donate (‘doneren’) button or IBAN number on this webpage. If we can help them through this difficult start-up phase, they can become a real alternative for catholic parents who want to give their children a catholic education – and prove that even after decades of ‘progressivism’, the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church (in Flanders).
[Appeal sent by a Belgian reader]
