Rethinking the Twentieth-Century Catholic Church in Belgium: the Inter-Relationship Between Liturgy and Architecture

Abstract

When considering the evolution of twentieth-century church-building, two topics are inescapable — the Liturgical Movement and developments in Modern architecture — and this article therefore argues that in order to appreciate the evolution of the twentieth-century Catholic parish church it is essential to take both liturgical and architectural developments into account. It focuses on such churches in Belgium because that country played a particularly important role in developing relevant theory, Belgian clergy having been founding members of the Liturgical Movement. However, the movement took more than half a century to develop fully there, during which time other initiatives also appeared, such as Domus Dei (the Belgian Diocesan organization for church-building, set up in 1952) and Pro Arte Christiana. Moreover, other factors — ecclesiastical, social, economic, political and cultural — also prove to be crucial in reaching a full appreciation of twentieth-century church-building, for instance, the impact of diocesan guidelines for church-building, and of bodies such as Catholic Action (Katholieke Actie) and Parish Action (Parochiale Actie). This article demonstrates that, despite few apparent formal similarities (if any) between churches built in Belgium before and after World War II, the developments of the inter-war period were fundamental to post-war developments in Belgian church-building.