St. Anthony's Parish  Your English speaking Roman catholic parish in Kraineem   

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History of the Parish

Introduction

St Anthony’s is one of the best established non-Belgian churches in Belgium. We were founded in the early seventies to meet the spiritual and worship needs of the new member state citizens, from Ireland and the United Kingdom, who came inlarge numbers to Brussels to work in the old EEC. Since then, of course, the parish has reached far beyond the boundaries of the expatriate Irish and British communities to welcome people from all over the world. From as far a field as the USA, Australia, Indonesia and Africa, we now have one of the most vibrant and diverse parishes you could hope to find.

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A Community East of Brussels

When Denmark, Ireland and the UK joined the European Union (then EEC) in 1972, Cardinal Leo-Josef Suenens of the diocese of Mechelen-Brussel asked the Irish Franciscans to supply a Chaplaincy for what was expected to be a growing community of English-speaking Catholics. Within a year, Fr. Michel Bailey, working out of the Irish College in Leuven, became the first chaplain of this community. Eventually Fr. Bailey moved to Brussels where the Franciscans bought a house to function as a rectory and the community rented a chapel at St. Julien's Parish Church in Oudergem.

The community continued to grow, and in the spring of 1983, the present property in Kraainem was purchased with the further aid of the Franciscans from the sale of the house. Since that time, the community has been totally responsible for its own finances. The steady increase in our numbers had also led to an increase in the need to expand our infrastructure. The first expansion of the church took place immediately after we took possession of the property, but this was a minor change in comparison to what would be needed in the future.

In 1987, Fr. Bailey was recalled to Ireland and was replaced by Fr. Edmund Dugan who remained pastor until his untimely death in 1995. Fr. Vincent Gallogley is the third pastor of St. Anthony's and has seen us through the greatest period of expansion since the beginning. In 1991-1994 a lively discussion took place in the community about whether to expand the church or to invest in greatly expanding the parish hall in such a way that it could also be used for worship. Ultimately, we choose for the former and the work on the church that is now standing in Kraainem began in 1995. Because of the need for deep foundations to support the construction and because of the severe winter of 95-96, the work took longer (and cost more) than planned and the new church was dedicated by Cardinal Godfried Danneels on 15 June 1997.

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A brief history of our church

The chapel located on the property at Kraainem was not originally built there. It was constructed in the Heysel (close to the Atomium) for the occasion of the 1958 Belgian World Exhibition. After the close of the event, the building was dismantled and brought to Kraainem for reassembly on the site of what was then a religious community. When the community of St. Anthony took over the property, it was evident that the building (a contemporary of the Atomium, still standing today in Heysel) needed looking after. The beams of the A-frame needed repair and encasement, and it was only a matter of months before we realised that extending the outside wall to the last A-beams would significantly increase the floor space.

Until the end of the 1980’s, the ‘strengthened and enlarged church’ served the community very well. But as the community continued to grow and flourish, it became increasingly obvious that we were becoming short of space. It was not long before we had to ‘borrow’ a church for the celebrations of First Communion and Confirmation. The children’s liturgy alone on Sunday morning was becoming very cramped, as was the noon Mass on Sunday. We had once again outgrown our facilities.

A ‘lively discussion’ took place during the period 1991-1994 regarding whether we should enlarge the church or the main building. While the benefits of the first were clear, a case could be made for more space for classrooms in the main building as well as a large multipurpose space for many different events, including the celebration of the liturgy for large congregations. The difficult decision was made with the presumption that an enlarged church could also function in a multipurpose way.

Deciding to expand the church rather than the centre was only the beginning of a long project. Before building could begin, mandatory tests of the ground revealed that the site of the church was in fact a marsh. To support the A-frame construction, which turned out to be the most suitable type of construction for this situation, piles had to be sunk deep into the ground. This added significantly to the total cost. It also delayed the project. The severe weather of the winter of 1995/96 also contributed to delays, and the building did not become available until early 1997. On 15 June 1997 Cardinal Godfried Danneels solemnly dedicated the new church to St. Anthony. 
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Help us to write the history of the Parish

At the moment that the web site has been published in the World Wide Web, we are working in the recollection of testimonies and anecdotes of the first parishioners. If you have some anecdote, story, picture or document that can help us to write the history of the Parish, please send an e-mail to the webmaster at ferran.tarradellas@skynet.be

With this material we are going to prepare a "historic tour" which will soon be available in the Parish web site.