A titan of the European Church since the late 1970s, Godfried Danneels died as a symbol of an exhausted liberal Catholicism resuscitated by Pope Francis. It was passing strange that such an acclaimed man would die more a symbol than remembered for his legacy, but the legacy of Cardinal Danneels of Mechelen-Brussels was rather undistinguishable from that of an entire generation or two of European prelates.
Educated and formed in a largely vibrant Catholic culture as a boy and young priest, Danneels presided over a Belgian Church for three decades that is now so weak that, if it were an ordinary Belgian citizen, it would be euthanatised on an accelerated schedule.
