Church in the world briefings
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A plan to repurpose a deconsecrated Catholic Church as a swimming pool has been abandoned in the Netherlands. The city of Heerlen, east of Maastricht said it could not afford the 20-million-euro cost of remodelling the former church of St Francis of Assisi. Initially, it had allocated a budget of 6.7 million euros to transform the brickwork church built in 1923. The parish closed three years ago. The number of Catholic parishes has fallen in the Netherlands from 1,600 in 2000 to 630 last year. Many abandoned churches are repurposed as libraries, hotels, cafés, fitness centres and event spaces.
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