The strong secularisation of Belgian society in recent decades has
resulted in growing public ignorance about the norms and values of
Catholicism, the Observatory of Religions and Laïcité at the Université
Libre de Bruxelles said in its first annual report.The report said only half of all Belgians still identify as Catholics, compared to 72 per cent three decades ago, and 42 per cent now said they are atheists or agnostics.
Fewer than five percent of Belgian Catholics attended Sunday Mass in 2009, compared to 29 per cent in 1977.
Only about one-quarter of couples marry in church now, a steep drop from 78 per cent in 1977, and infant baptisms have dropped to 55 per cent from 85 per cent, the report said.