OK, this one needs a bit of back story. When Napoleon took Flanders from Austria, he looted church properties (as he was used to doing pretty much everywhere).
So, when Belgium became independant, it was reasoned that, since the (catholic) church had no more money (erm, yeah, sure) the state would pick up the tab.
[1]So, hence forth, the wages of all catholic clergy was paid by the national government, as was the maintenance of the churches. This suited the catholic church just fine of course. Well, there was a bit of grumbling when the protestants claimed and got the same advantage. Currently there are 6 official religions in Belgium: Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Jewish and Islamic
[2]And all of their priests and temples are paid for by the government.
So, all is well in religion land? Well, not really. The jurisdiction of this
[3] has recently been moved from the national government to the Flemish govenrment ... and the Flemish government is going "I ain't paying for that!"
So, now, the Flemish part of the Belgian Catholic church has been instructed to select one church per community and sell off all the others. For the time being, it's just the catholics, since their churches are the emptiest. fe. my home town of around 17k people currently has three parishes meaning that two of those churches along with all the 'support structure' have to be sold off.
This has led to a funny little war of sorts in a nearby city. There, a church which has been sitting empty for several decades has a potential buyer ... the local islamic community! And, of course the catholics will sell to anyone 'except the muslims'. Oooooh, I'd love to see that one go to court.
Not all is well in the land of Flemings though, as there is no fixed timeframe for these sales ... yet.
