Belgium: Church reports increase in adult baptisms

Source: CathoBel

The number of adult baptisms in Belgium has more than doubled in the last ten years. In 2010, there were 143, five years later, 180 and this year 305.

CathoBel, the website of the Catholic Church in Belgium, report that the largest number of adult baptisms in the country will take place this year in the Diocese of Tournai. The diocese will baptize 127 adults.

Although the majority of Belgium's 11.5 million population are baptized Catholics, regular Sunday Mass attendance is below 7%.

Following the coronavirus pandemic, this year's celebrations could not take place in the weeks before and the months after Easter. CathoBel said: "It was a heavy sacrifice for the catechumens awaiting their baptism. Now that we can celebrate again and that the holiday period is almost over, the catechumens who have prepared this year are going to be baptized all over the country."

Among the new Catholics are Narumol Chanassit, 42, who arrived in Belgium from Thailand in 1996. He was baptized by Deacon Eric Bochar, on Sunday, 23 August with his 18-year-old son, Niral, and eight-year-old daughter, Nicole, in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Ter Sneeuwkerk church in Borgerhout.

During a catechesis earlier this week, they said: "This Sunday will mark for our family the start of a new life that we have been waiting for so long. We long for our new birth."

LINK

CathoBel - www.cathobel.be/