Jesuit secondary school to open soon in Belgian hotbed of Islamic radicalism

The Flemish Ministry of Education has approved a project by a network of Flemish Ignatian secondary schools in Brussels to build a new school in the municipality of Molenbeek.

Servant Of God Egide Van Broeckhoven SJ after whom the school is to be named / Fine Art America

A project that leaders of the "Flemish Jesuit education group of Brussels" have been dreaming of for years – to open a third secondary school in a disadvantaged area of the capital – has finally been approved by the Flemish Ministry of Education.

Previously, the group operated two prestigious schools in the center and north of Brussels respectively. The new project aims to deliver good quality teaching to 12 to 18-year-olds from more mixed backgrounds in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek.

"When Brussels authorities appealed in 2014 for schools in the capital to increase their capacity, particularly in the western municipalities, which are historically less well-off, we decided to make it our responsibility and began to look for a location," explains Paul Yperman, deputy director of the association.

The project was finally brought to fruition by a collaborative effort with a promoter via a joint public-private partnership program including the construction of social housing, which succeeded in obtaining approval and funding from the Flemish Ministry of Education.

The chosen site is in the midst of several abandoned old industrial buildings, not far from the "Gare de l'Ouest" Metro station, right in the heart of Molenbeek.

"It is a dream location... [It] not only allows us to respond to an urgent need but also gives a positive sign to this suffering neighborhood, which has been particularly stigmatized since the attacks on Paris and Brussels," explains Yperman.

The school, which will have a capacity of 850 students, will open its doors to students in September 2021.

It is expected to offer a wider range of streams of secondary education, providing vocational and technical classes in addition to general education.

This decision was made deliberately with a view to facilitating the anchoring of the school in the locality and to build bridges between general and technical education in the neighborhood.

"In our country, the majority of Jesuit schools have historically provided general education," explained Véronique Thielemans, general director of the Jesuit Jan-van-Ruusbroec high school in the north of Brussels.

"But elsewhere in the world, in Spanish-speaking countries, for example, Jesuit schools mainly provide technical and vocational education," she added.

"It is a challenge, but we would like it to be seen as a way of responding to Pope Francis' appeal to promote social justice through education," says Yperman.

The name of the school has already been decided and is already known throughout Molenbeek: Collège Van Broeckhoven.

The name was chosen in honor of Fr Egied Van Broeckhoven, a Jesuit working class priest who served in the area before tragically passing away at the age of 34 during the late 1960s after a work-related accident.