“Safeguards” Cannot Make Euthanasia Safe

by Robert Clarke

In Belgium, you can be euthanized for almost any reason, though the European Court of Human Rights will occasionally disagree. Continue Reading »

14 Nov 2022

Belgium’s Death Doctors

by Wesley J. Smith

Belgium is prosecuting three doctors for illegal euthanasia. Continue Reading »

17 Jan 2020

Belgium After Danneels

by Charlotte Allen

An obituary for Belgian Catholicism, like that of the primate who presided over so much of its decline, is currently being written. Continue Reading »

4 Apr 2019

What Euthanasia Enthusiasts Really Want

by Wesley J. Smith

Assisted-suicide advocacy is wrapped in euphemisms and false assurances. We are often told that medicalized killing will be “a last resort” reserved for the terminally ill, to be deployed only in the context of a long-term relationship with a caring doctor and, even then, strictly when there is . . . . Continue Reading »

8 Jan 2016

“In Bruges” in Bruges

by Philip Bess

Rome is the foundation of the University of Notre Dame architecture and urban design curriculum, and properly so. Nevertheless, every year for the past ten years I have traveled from Notre Dame to meet a new class of graduate urban design students (themselves up from Rome on spring break) for a week in the small historic city of Bruges. Where is Bruges? It’s in Belgium. Continue Reading »

4 Aug 2015

Europe’s Euthanasia Craze

by Tom Wilson

The case of Frank Van Den Bleeken—the Belgian murderer and rapist who requested to be euthanized rather than spend life in prison—has provoked its fair share of comment. And rightly so, the facts of this case are undoubtedly shocking. But far more shocking is the rapidly growing euthanasia culture that made this whole affair possible. This increasing normalization of euthanasia is just one of many social trends that reveals a Europe that is becoming profoundly estranged from its Judeo-Christian heritage. As that happens, European societies are losing the moral and spiritual armory with which to resist the gradual slide into a complacent nihilism Continue Reading »

9 Jan 2015

In Belgium, Two Types of Bishops

by Filip Mazurczak

For at least half a century, the revival of Catholicism in its traditional heartlands has been a pastoral priority for the Church. In this regard, Belgium is an instructive case study. For decades, it was famed for theological adventurousness while parishes and seminaries emptied at a dizzying pace. However, during the primacy of Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard since 2010, priestly vocations there have surged and the Church has emerged out of the catacombs. He has drastically broken with recent Catholic history in his country. Now some ask: Is his style of leadership the remedy for Western de-Christianization? Continue Reading »

30 Oct 2014