Team Harelbeke, a coalition of Catholics and liberals, achieved the absolute majority with 53 percent. The thanksgiving mass fits into that context.
“It is somewhat in our universal, traditional values and norms,” says Francis Pattyn, first alderman at Team Harelbeke.
“There are also many people within the Open VLD who have been baptized and who were raised as Christians, who, like me, are not the greatest practicing Christians, but who still feel that we should come together and reflect for an hour. You don’t have to There’s really no point in that. No one is obliged to come, but everyone is welcome.”