No. of Recommendations: 3
Not a US policy issue. But interesting. With religion declining in most of the world (including Europe), some churches are having difficulties keeping the doors open. Plus, many are so old that they require varying degrees of maintenance so they don't decay to the point of being dangerous.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/world/europe/fr...I actually like seeing some of the old churches. The architecture can be magnificent, with flying buttresses and such. Though, some are a disappointment (e.g. we went to Fatima in Spain...the architecture was boring, not much sculpture of note, really nothing interesting). I would think some should be saved as part of a national heritage, sans the religious organization being able to occupy it
if the state takes over the care of the structure for heritage.
Across France, an estimated 15,000 religious buildings out of 45,000 are classified as historical monuments, according to the Culture Ministry. More than 2,300 of them are in poor condition, and 363 are considered endangered, the ministry said.
“The situation is alarming,” said Hadrien Lacoste, the vice president of the Religious Heritage Observatory, an independent nonprofit group. “There’s a drop in religious practice,” he added, “and there’s a drop in demographics in rural areas.”If the churches want to muddle through on their own, fine. I have no dog in this fight in France, but I would say that if it is a historical monument, then the government should kick the clergy out, restore it, and charge admission to view the amazing architecture and art. Assuming said clergy can't maintain it themselves, of course.
We don't have much of that in the US. Our country is too new to have much medieval architecture. But a lot of what we have is open to tourists, like San Javier du Boc (AZ). In other articles, I've read about churches being sold and repurposed for other uses.
