Catholic Church in Belgium

The Catholic Church in Belgium, part of the global Catholic Church, is under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, the curia in Rome and the Conference of Belgian Bishops.

There are eight dioceses, including one archdiocese, seat of the archiepiscopal residence and St. Rumbolds Cathedral, located in the old Flemish city of Mechelen (Malines in French). Since 2010, the archbishop of Mechelen and primate of all Belgium is Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard.

The Belgian church established and s the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Université catholique de Louvain, which together comprise the largest university in Belgium. It is considered one of the "World's Best Colleges and Universities" in the new 2009 US News and World Report. The archbishop of Mechelentis ex officio the Great Chancellor of the university. It was founded by the bishops of Belgium in 1834 to replace the Old University of Leuven, which the French Republic had suppressed in 1797. Some of its most notable graduates include Georges Lemaître, priest, astronomer, and proposer of the Big Bang theory, Otto von Habsburg, former head of the Habsburg family, Saint Alberto Hurtado, Chilean Jesuit priest who was canonised in 2005, Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, mathematician who proved the prime number theorem, Christian de Duve, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1974, among others. The Belgian church also oversees the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the National Basilica of Belgium.

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