Saturday, April 04, 2009
Is there any point in Belgium?
It really does seem a fairly pointless sort of country if its Parliament has nothing better to do that pass resolutions being rude about the Pope. How crass and daft. Remember all those jokes about trying to name ten famous Belgians? No one ever can. Brussels is noted as a centre of the European child-sex industry. But apart from that, and the extraordinary financial irregularities of the European bureaucracy, its achievements in recent years have been a bit mininal.
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How very sad to see what a difference a generation or two can make. It makes me think of the Nun's Story (book as well as film), which although it was fiction-based-on-fact captured a pre-war Belgium that was rich in faith and consequently vocations - grottos in villages and city streets, families who made the sign of the cross over the loaf of bread before cutting it, people who had close one-on-one relationships with Our Blessed Lord.
Quite right!
There is no point in Belgium. It was only set up in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. The country has distinguished itself only as the inventer of chips (french fries), the saxophone and the nationality of two fictitious heroes (Poirrot and Tintin) - Oh and by the way it is notorious for its atrocious Colonial record in the Congo (some of us remember how this culminated with Belgium's mishanding of Congolese independence in the 1960's). That benighted country is still suffering to this day.
Flanders would certainly like to hive itself off, whether as an independent state within the EU or aligning itself with the Netherlands. That would leave the French speaking Wallonia (to align with France?)
Douglas Adams perhaps reflected all this when he claimed that the word 'belgium' was regarded as a most heinous expletive in parts of the Galaxy except the Earth.
"an independent state within the EU"? Some contradiction there, shurely?
What an ignorant, uncultivated woman you are - a true daughter of Carshalton and resident of Mitcham, suburbia in excelsis. Here is a sample of some famous Belgians:
Audrey Hepburn, actress; Josquin des Prez, composer; Fr Damian, missionary; Jan van Rysbrack, sculptor; Cornelis Jansen, a theologian after your heart; Georges Simenon, novelist; Hercule Poirot, detective; Christoph Plantin, the leading Catholic printer of the Counter-Reformation; Jean Bolland SJ, hagiographer, after whom the Bollandists are named; St John Berchmans SJ; Soeur Sourire, the singing nun; Peter Paul Rubens, painter; Anton Van Dyck, painter, portraitist to the court of Charles I; Rogier van der Weyden, painter; Victor Horta and Henry van der Velde, Art Nouveau architects; Jacques Brel, singer; and Jan van Eyck, the most celebrated painter of the Netherlandish School.
Let's hope that your University of the Third Age studies at Maryvale will broaden your cultural horizons.
If you want more, just ask.
Belgium, of course, was founded because it had a staunchly Catholic population. Their parliament seems to have lost any sense of irony in their attempts to scramble for a diabolical - and unattainable - victory.
If one could only judge a country by it's government then most of us in Europe would have something to be ashamed of. Belgium has some beautiful places including the approved Marian apparition sites at Beauraing and Banneux (which unfortunately don't seem to get as much publicity as a non-approved site I can think of). I've only been to Beauraing but will certainly go back - it was a rainy, cold day and the place is hardly physically beautiful but it is overwhelmingly peaceful.
A country with a 12-inch tall bronze statue of a boy urinating as a national figurehead speaks volumes. Small, can't find it on a tourist map of Brussels and when you finally find the little chap in a darkened square after walking past him several times, you realise he's surrounded by a dozen people laughing at him - all the while he's weeing on them... But where would we be without their beer or chocolate?
Don't they do chocolate?
How sad and ironic that this is happening on the eve of Blessed Damien of Molokai's canonization (scheduled to take place October 11, 2009). May Blessed (soon to be Saint) Damien de Veuster intercede for Belgium, the country of his birth. Blessed Damien is considered to be the patron of those suffering with HIV/AIDS as well as Hansen's Disease.
I can name a few famous Belgians: Cardinal Josef Suenens (a former journalist who became a priest and gave his life to promoting Catholic orthodoxy in Belgium and throughout the world), King Baudouin I (who abdicated his throne rather than sign an act allowing the legalisation of abortion), Rev. Damien de Veuster (recently canonised by Pope Benedict for giving his life for the lepers in the 19th century). Yes, and I can quite easily name 7 more if need be.
I agree 100% that the Belgian government's condemnation of the Pope's remarks about condoms are wrong, especially since they probably read His Holiness' words out of context. But you cannot dismiss the entire country and its people based on the actions of its government any more than you can condemn Britain because its government did not ban abortion recently when had the chance or because it allows embryonic stem cell research and homosexual marriage!
There are thousands of good Catholic Belgians who are busy defending the faith, openly standing up for the Pope, and who are quite upset by the actions of their parliament. They would also be devastated to see a fellow Catholic dismissing their country as 'fairly pointless' instead of fighting alongsinde them for truth and righteousness.
I am quite shocked that a good Catholic would dismiss an entire country because of the actions of its Parliament.
Oh, dear, all these sad people who missed the point. Yes, dear Mr Porter I am well aware of the people you mention...and along with M. Poirot, I am aware of Tintin, another fictional character whom you doubtless assume to be real, just as you assume I live in Mitcham. And, yes, I do know about the famous painters who lived in that part of the world before Belgium was invented.
The point you all missed... which I'll now patiently explain because you seem to need this, just as you seem to need to know that Agatha Christie invented Hercule Poirot, is that the current Belgian Government has chosen to pass pointless resolutions insulting the Pope, because it has nothing better to do even though the country faces a number of grave problems relating to its future and its identity.
Regular readers of this Blog will be aware of my visit to Flanders and my writings on the subject. Dear Mr Porter, if you want more information on the subject, do ask me, or , better, ask some one who will be able to explain to you why your inability to engage with humour is itself somehow comic.
On a more serious note - King Baudoin was a fine and good man, and the Royal Family today serves the Belgians with grace and dignity. They must be suffering with the current insults to the Pope. They, and the Catholic people of the country, deserve better.
Belgium is a bit backward in it's thinking it seems, according to this
Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has said that the evidence confirms that the Pope is correct in his assessment that condom distribution exacerbates the problem of AIDS.
"The pope is correct," Green told National Review Online Wednesday, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments."
"There is," Green added, "a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded ‘Demographic Health Surveys,’ between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by ‘compensating’ or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology." ( see the full interview with Green here: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTNlNDc1MmMwNDM0OTEzMjQ… = )
The Harvard AIDS Project’s webpage on Green lists his book "Rethinking AIDS Prevention: Learning from Successes in Developing Countries ". It is stated that Green reveals, "The largely medical solutions funded by major donors have had little impact in Africa, the continent hardest hit by AIDS. Instead, relatively simple, low-cost behavioral change programs–stressing increased monogamy and delayed sexual activity for young people–have made the greatest headway in fighting or preventing the disease’s spread."
The full text of Pope Benedict XVI’s exchange with the reporter, which has set off a firestorm around the world in the media, has been released by the Vatican press office.
The pope was asked, "Holy Father among the many evils that affect Africa there is also the particular problem of the spread of AIDS. The position of the Catholic Church for fighting this evil is frequently considered unrealistic and ineffective.?"
Benedict XVI replied, "I would say the opposite.
"It is my belief that the most effective presence on the front in the battle against HIV/AIDS is precisely the Catholic Church and her institutions. I think of the Community of Sant’ Egidio, which does so much, visibly and invisibly to fight AIDS, of the Camillians, of all the nuns that are at the service of the sick.
"I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness - even through personal sacrifice - to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.
"Therefore, I would say that our double effort is to renew the human person internally, to give spiritual and human strength to a way of behaving that is just towards our own body and the other person’s body; and this capacity of suffering with those who suffer, to remain present in trying situations.
"I believe that this is the first response [to AIDS] and that this is what the Church does, and thus, she offers a great and important contribution. And we are grateful to those that do this."
See Dr. Green’s impressive credentials and list of publications at
http://www.harvardaidsprp.org/faculty-staff/edward-c-green-b…
The state of the Church in Belgium:
http://cathcon.blogspot.com/2009/04/desecration-of-desecration-in-brussels.html
When I traveled to Belgium a few years ago a couple of times, I was impressed by the beauty of the remaining churches--but also noted how some had passed into disuse, and I know that has continued since our visits. When we actually attended Mass, however, we experienced strange experiments in the liturgy (it was also in Flemish which my husband and I did not understand--but we knew that a group of women acted out the Gospel and the priest was definitely upstaged by their presence). We heard much about the Belgian government's enlightened welfare state, and one time were told that it was a very good thing that they had legalized prostitution, because of the high health standards of the ladies of the night! It is sad, of course, because of the sacrifice of earlier generations being rejected and destroyed.
In April 1990, the reigning King of the Belgians, Baudouin, refused to sign the Royal Assent of a law liberalising the country's abortion laws. This was an unprecedented act. Because of his strong Roman Catholic convictions, Bauduoin abdicated for a day, so that he would not need to , indeed could not, in conscience, sign. This was a symbolic act of great witness of a holy, well-loved king. So there is a point in Belguim??
The French had a joke about Belgiums.How do you make a Belgium burn his ear? Phone him up when he,s ironing.Ha ha.
Joanna you really are great and give such valid honest views.
I think you'll find there is a very distinct difference between Belgium and Perfidious Albion and Cymru.
While the government condemned the papacy ; Belgian bishops published a letter of unequivocal support for His Holiness....
Could one ever imagine such a move here ?
One more thing ; nobody has mentioned Fr Georges Lemaitre - the 'father' of modern cosmology !
...I suppose we should be grateful nobody has mentioned among the 'great Belgians' a certain Fr Schillebeecx....
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