Why join the network?
Why should we open the churches?
1. To let everyone admire the beauty of our heritage.
Altarpieces, stained glass, organs, statues, frescoes: our churches and chapels hold centuries of art and craftsmanship. This heritage only has meaning if it is seen, shared and passed on. A closed church is a treasure left in the shadows. By opening its doors, we give everyone — villager, passing visitor or simple onlooker — the chance to step inside, look up and marvel.
2. To bring life back around these public buildings.
A church is not only a place of worship: it is often the historic heart of the village, a landmark, a meeting point. By opening it, we restore its place in the life of the community. Concerts, exhibitions, moments of contemplation, quiet pauses along a walk: so many occasions to bring these walls back to life and to gather people — believers and non-believers alike — around a common good.
3. Because there is much at stake between a closed church and an open one.
To close a church is to slowly reduce it to a mere store of heritage — a museum without visitors, a place that fades away. To open it is to give it back its soul: a living, welcoming space where anyone can step in freely to pray, to reflect, or to shelter for a moment from the noise of the world. Behind a door, open or closed, the whole meaning of this heritage is at play.
Churches are public places under both administrative law as well as canon law. They are part of the public domain and therefore have to be accessible to everyone.
A church is worth more than just its liturgical function. However important and necessary this is, its function is much broader and answers to deeper needs. Churches that are dedicated to Catholic worship are not just reserved to the Catholics, and even less to practicing Catholics. This is what happens when churches are closed.
The purpose of religious buildings can in no way be limited to the celebration of the Eucharist. The mission of those that are responsible for this heritage is to open churches, and not to close them.
Why are churches being closed?
For fear of vandalism and theft. Yet most thefts take place in churches that are closed. A closed church is safer for thieves than the building itself. Churches are being closed because one doesn’t have the financial resources to install an effective and suitable security system. Churches are also being closed because the police demands this.
What does the closing of a church mean?
It means that the importance of a church is being reduced to that of a building that contains heritage. Closing a church means giving priority to the incidental at the expense of the essential. One turns the church into a museum, a lifeless place.
In the name of protecting a movable heritage, we are letting an entire spiritual heritage die, which in my view is more important, because the other was created for this exact purpose. This spiritual, intangible heritage is most definitely worth our attention and allowed to speak for itself.
