The federal government will have until next Sunday to resolve this issue after the Council of State has ruled that the ban on worship services is not commensurate with the measures needed to combat the coronavirus. The ruling followed a complaint from Jewish organizations and concerns the ban on all religious gatherings in churches, mosques, synagogues and temples.
According to the judgment, there is a disproportionate restriction on the freedom of worship in that the government has not even provided for the possibility of allowing the collective practice of worship to continue at least, by way of exception and under certain conditions, in certain cases, possibly only on request, stating the place and time.
By judgment of 8 December 2020, the Conseil d'État ordered, in the context of an interlocutory action, that the Belgian State should at least provisionally amend this regulation in such a way that any restriction on the collective exercise of the worship service is no longer disproportionate. According to the judgment, this must be done by 13 December 2020 at the latest.
Belgium banned all services in churches, mosques and synagogues at the end of October, when the second corona wave threatened to become too much for the country. This measure also played a previous role in France. Catholic organizations argued that churches and cathedrals are much wider than shops and argued that it is therefore illogical to use the same quota in both rooms. The Council of State agreed with the Catholic organizations.
