In the depths of decline, who will lead the Belgian Church

The Italian journalist and Vaticanista Paolo Rodari has an interesting post up about Cardinal Godfried Daneels, the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and head of the Belgian bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Daneels handed in his resignation last year when he was 75, the normal age at which bishops retire, but the Vatican hasn’t accepted it yet.

Rodari says the Holy Father will make his decision over Christmas. The Belgian Church is in a major crisis. Decline is serious, the seminaries are empty and practicing Catholics are hard to find.