European Central: Churches In Luxembourg Struggle With Separation From State
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While the separation of church and state has existed for centuries in various European countries, it has only been recently established in Luxembourg. On the 26th of January, 2015 Luxembourg’s government signed an agreement with religious groups that paves the way for a complete separation of church and state in two decades. The Roman Catholic Church will suffer the most from this agreement as it received the most financial support since it is Luxembourg’s dominant religion. Currently, the salaries of those hired by the Roman Catholic Church in Luxembourg before 2016 will continue to have their salaries paid by the government. In 2021 the government paid 24.5 million euros in salaries, one million less than the previous year. Currently, there are 493 Catholic Churches and Chapels, and 356 are still owned by municipalities. 4 churches have already been desecrated meaning they will no longer be used by the church for services. Funding will decrease gradually until the Catholic Church is completely independent. The national government is also currently still providing subsidies to Muslim, Anglican, and Jewish religious groups in Luxembourg. Eventually, these religious groups will have to become completely financially independent which is challenging given the pandemic and ongoing invasion of Ukraine. There is little that can be done immediately to lower energy costs, only adding to the urgency of increasing revenue for the church fund.
In order to increase revenue, the church is shifting its priorities. The Roman Catholic Church in Luxembourg planned on investing in social housing as part of its Church fund, which will be its new form of financing rather than the government. While social housing may be viewed as a Christian way to raise money, it appears that it will not be economically feasible. The pandemic and invasion of Ukraine have created economic difficulties for everyone including Luxembourg’s catholic church which is just learning how to be independent. Instead, the Catholic Church will look into owning and leasing out commercial properties as a source of financing. This decision comes after revenue from the collection during services was down 30 percent in 2020 and the dramatic price increase for energy, making it costly to heat churches that are not known to be designed for energy efficiency. Social housing would have originally solved the church's financial problems and assisted with the lack of affordable housing in Luxembourg. Marianne Bausch, President of the Church fund hopes that this can change in the future and that social housing may become feasible. One positive aspect of the Church fund is that it has successfully simplified insurance policies for the churches from hundreds to just one policy.
The relationship between the Church and the State started in 1801 under the Concordat of 1801 when Luxembourg was part of France. Under the Concordat, Napoleon Bonaparte solidified the relationship between the Catholic Church and the government which was not overturned until 1905 once the French government created the separation of Church and State. Luxembourg however became independent in 1815 and did not follow France’s example in 1905. Instead, Luxembourg would wait 110 years to separate the church from the state. The Catholic Church’s domination of Luxembourg to this day with just shy of 58 percent of the population being part of the church can be explained by the ban of the protestant church until 1768 in Luxembourg. Today Luxembourg is more religiously diverse, particularly as a result of immigration. 47 percent of the population in Luxembourg in 2020 were immigrants, the highest all of EU member states. Besides Catholics and Protestants, there are also Muslims, Jews, Anglicans, and Orthodox. Along with an increase in the variety of religions, the portion of Luxembourg’s population that has no religious beliefs has increased as well.
The rise of atheism in Luxembourg can partially be credited with the move to dissolve the government’s relationship with religion. This rise has been relatively quick as only 20 years ago 94 percent of the population in Luxembourg was officially part of the Catholic church meanwhile in 2014 this dropped to 58 percent identifying as Catholic. It is difficult to get more accurate data based on how people are officially registered as the Luxembourgish government has been banned from collecting data on religious affiliation since 1979. Fraiheet.lu was created to inform people about how to dissolve their membership with the Catholic church and what potential consequences are if they choose to officially terminate their membership. Church members simply need to fill out a form and send it by email or certified letter to the archdiocese with a copy of their ID. The form is available on Fraiheet.lu in French and German, the two dominant languages of Luxembourg. Membership in the Catholic Church is initiated by baptism in Luxembourg, meaning those baptized outside the country need to verify the process based on where they were baptized. Some potential drawbacks of giving up church membership are not being able to take part in church rituals such as a religious wedding, being a sponsor for a baptism, or having a priest present at their burial service.
The separation of church and state is continuing as scheduled, but it is up to the various religions and particularly the Catholic Church to become financially independent in order to survive. Current circumstances will not make it easy but instead add to the difficulty of achieving financial independence. Various religions will not only have to battle rising costs adding to how much money they need to operate but a decrease in believers who would potentially donate money to continue operat0
