![\"Cardinal](\"https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/content\/dam\/vaticannews\/multimedia\/2026\/gennaio\/12\/613994087_1479500664177364_5057803131109989155_n_0.jpg\/_jcr_content\/renditions\/cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.750.422.jpeg\" "\\"Cardinal")
<\/p>\nOn the 800th anniversary of Brussels\u2019 Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, the Holy See Secretary of State reflects on the spiritual future of a Europe marked by fragility and a loss of direction.<\/p>\n
By Augustine Asta<\/p>\n
Inside a cathedral steeped in eight centuries of history, filled with hundreds of the faithful and members of the Belgian royal family, Cardinal Parolin stressed that the “Christian faith does not exist outside of time or on the margins of history, but grows within it, in concrete places and through real communities.”<\/p>\n
Long before this 13th-century Gothic structure was built, he said, a chapel dedicated to Saint Michael and a Romanesque church, had already borne witness to Christianity\u2019s deep roots in Brussels.<\/p>\n
This slow, patient growth, the Cardinal Secretary of State said, illustrates the very nature of the Church, which “is not born from a single isolated act or a project completed only in one moment, but from a fidelity that spans generations, in which each person receives, safeguards and hands on what has been entrusted to them.”<\/p>\n
Over eight centuries, he noted, the cathedral has accompanied the Christian life of the city and the nation, embodying a faith which engages the questions of its time.<\/p>\n
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\n Cardinal Parolin delivers his homily\n <\/p>\n
Saints Michael and Gudula: Two images of the Church <\/p>\n
The first foundations of the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula date back to 1226, when Henry II, Duke of Brabant, decided to build a church on a strategic site at the crossroads of routes linking France and Germany.<\/p>\n
For Cardinal Parolin, the Cathedral\u2019s two patron saints embody a mission that remains strikingly relevant today.<\/p>\n
Saint Michael evokes \u201cvigilance and discernment,\u201d while Saint Gudula represents \u201cdaily fidelity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Together, he said, they sketch the face of a Church called to hold together truth and service, firmness and gentleness.<\/p>\n
Brussels and European fragility <\/p>\n
Home to many of the European Union\u2019s institutions, Brussels is, Cardinal Parolin said, a city born from encounter and the ability to reconcile differences. Europe itself, however, he observed, is currently passing through \u201ca period of profound fragility, marked by fears and fractures that are not only political and social, but also interior and cultural.\u201d<\/p>\n
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