2. Why in Brussels?

Many friars ask why the support fraternity to prepare missionaries has been installed in a European city, in Brussels, rather than a mission country.

After the first months lived in this city, one can say that Brussels offers many possibilities for the missionary formation.

- Brussels is one of the most important centres for international and intercontinental communications: from Brussels one can easily go to and come back from any part of the world.

- Brussels is a crossroads of peoples and cultures, due to the arrival of earlier and recent immigrants from aIl continents and also for presence of functionaries of NATO and the European Community .

- Brussels is the European Capital and all European nationalities are represented. The number represented is quickly approaching 25.

- AlI national or cultural groups have constituted one or several Christian communities: catholic, orthodox or protestant. And the missionary brothers can meet many Christian communities.

- The variety of peoples and cultures has favoured also the significant presence of non Christian religions: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism. And for each one of these religions there exists a means of dialogue or contact.

- ln Belgium, and particularly in Brussels, are present many humanitarian and cultural institutions such as Lumen Vitae, the Catholic University "Louvain-La-Neuve", lET, Pax Christi, Justice and Peace, Caritas international, Missio, "Voies de l'Orient", the University of Peace, etc. ..

- ln Brussels, and in Belgium, there are also many possibilities to learn and to perfect a second language (French, Italian, Spanish, Russian. ..). Particularly interesting and favourable for the missionaries is the lnstitute "Mission Langues" for the knowledge of French.

- ln Brussels a large friary in good condition already exists which accommodates a good number ofvolunteers and permits other developments for the future.

- But, maybe overall, Brussels allows the possibility of missionary formation outside of any project or any specific culture. For this kind of formation it is very important keep a discrete distance before immersing oneself into a particular context. Finally, the logistics do not permit duplicating this type of formation program in each specific mission area.

 Brussels Main