2023-09-11 17:44:00
This Monday morning, the press release came without warning and in a completely unexpected manner. Sent by the spokespersons of the Catholic institution without any comment, this press release bore neither letterhead nor signature, as if the wish was for it to go unnoticed.
Jean Kockerols, the text underlined, asked to be able to take a sabbatical year, which the Pope granted him. The auxiliary bishop, responsible for holding the helm of the Church in Brussels, therefore thanked his teams and gave way to Tony Frison who will take over in the interim. This priest, aged 58, knows the capital like the back of his hand, as well as the mysteries of the institution since he was the deputy of Mgr Kockerols for 12 years.
The press release says nothing regarding the reasons for this step aside. And if it is not a surprise, no one within the Church wishes to comment on this sabbatical year (which is therefore not a resignation). The only certainty, several sources tell La Libre, is that there is no criminal case behind this exclusion.
A lonely worker
Born in 1958 near Antwerp, priest much appreciated by his parishioners, auxiliary bishop for Brussels in 2011, Mgr Kockerols is a “hard worker”. However, he quickly understood that the Church in Brussels, very varied, was difficult to govern. Every Sunday, mass is celebrated there in more than twenty different languages, while ecclesial and ideological sensitivities are numerous. The era, moreover, is complicated. Faced with secularization and the rapid drop in vocations, the bishop continued the merger of parishes into pastoral units which did not meet with great success everywhere, deconsecrated some bell towers (without making these desecrations the backbone of his policy), placed lay people at the head of some pastoral units. At the same time, the Brussels regional authorities are reforming the financing of religion. Although he sets a course for his Church by wanting to involve as many lay people as possible, the episcopate of Mgr Kockerols is not appeased. Certain decisions, made alone, are misunderstood, and his lack of consultation is singled out. The departures from the capital of several communities (the monastic fraternities of Jerusalem who left Saint Gilles in 2017 without being encouraged to stay, the Premonstratensians who left La Cambre in 2020, etc.) give rise to misunderstandings, carte blanche and petitions once morest him. Last spring, the retirement of Philippe Mawet at Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, and the forced departure of Marc Leroy from the Koekelberg basilica – without priest successors being designated – created significant tensions. So much so that it was the Archbishop of Mechelen, Mgr De Kesel, as well as Luc Terlinden (then his right-hand man) who took up Koekelberg’s file and appointed priests of the Emmanuel Community to the basilica.
Bishop Kockerols never hid the fact that he found it very difficult to cope with the opposition, sometimes violent, that he encountered. Cited by some to succeed Mgr De Kesel, it is ultimately Luc Terlinden who will be. And it was on the occasion of this appointment that he took off to find some fresh air. Will he return to Brussels in twelve months? Nobody knows. It is possible that Luc Terlinden decides that there will no longer be, as today, an archbishop for the diocese of Mechelen-Brussels, and three auxiliary bishops (for Walloon Brabant, Flemish Brabant and Brussels), but rather an archbishop and three vicars (or right-hand men). This would allow a more coherent ecclesial policy across the entire diocese of Mechelen-Brussels, which is currently lacking.
The parishes of Brussels are forced to reorganize themselves: “I only have twelve priests under the age of 60”
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