Belgium
All Belgian Josephites are priests. They live in five communities, of which four are in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, and one in Wallonia, where French is spoken.
In Geraardsbergen, the native town of our Founder, there are two communities. The Sint-Jozefsinstituut in Geraardsbergen, is both our Mother House and our oldest school. It was opened by our Founder in 1817, the year of the foundation of the Josephites and has almost a thousand students. On the nearby Oudenberg (Old Mountain) the second community in the former Novitiate house built in 1941. This house is now our inter-regional house, where Josephites of different continents live together. At present two Congolese priests and two former Belgian missionaries are living fulltime in this house. At weekends, the community is joined by African Josephites who are studying at Leuven or Louvain-La-Neuve.
In Melle, near Ghent, the Josephites live at the College, founded in 1837. The College is a co-ed school of 700 students, of whom 300 boys are boarders. The Regional Prefect supervises the place of our schools in the country's educational system.
Our community in the University town of Leuven is based at the College of the Holy Trinity. The Regional Superior and the Regional Bursar live here. The school was founded in 1844 and now has 1,300 students. Pastoral work in parishes and hospitals is also part of the apostolate of this Josephite community.
In Wallonia the Josephites founded the Collège La Berlière in 1945 at Houtaing, near Ath. In 1996 the school became the Collège Visitation - La Berlière. There is still a boarding section at this school which is looked after by a Josephite.
Josephites undertake work in the Diocese of Tournai while another is a part-time Chaplain at SHAPE (Strategic Headquarters Allied Powers Europe).
A few elderly Josephites live at convalescent homes close to their home communities.
