Documentatie- en Onderzoekscentrum voor Religie, Cultuur en Samenleving

KADOC is the Interfaculty Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, Culture and Society at KU Leuven. Established in 1976, KADOC is not only one of the leading cultural heritage institutions in Belgium, but also an international centre for the study of the interaction between religion, culture and society in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The start of KADOC was extremely modest. The ten professors who regularly met from December 1974 in a side room of the refectory of the H. Geestcollege, could rely on little more than on their own enthusiasm, perseverance, occasional pats on the back, and in the best case the promise of "moral" support. Material and financial assistance was only promised at a later stage and only bit by bit. To achieve this, decisive arguments had to be put forward.

Fortunately there were strong arguments for the establishment of KADOC.In the Netherlands, the Catholic Documentation Center (KDC) of Nijmegen University - a center founded in 1971 - demonstrated the stimulating influence that a well-developed documentation center could exert on scientific research on the historical and current development of the Catholic community. The need for the establishment of an analogue center in Belgium proved all the more acute because the 'documentary patrimony' of the Catholic 'midfield' in the country was threatened by the shifts in Catholic organization after Vatican II.

Concern for the safeguard of the documentary heritage of the Catholic community and concern for the development of high-quality research in an important field of the human sciences met and led to a collaboration between the academic world, the Catholic organization and the ecclesiastical authorities.

The implementation of the project required thorough consultation (and therefore time). A steering committee, consisting of professors from four faculties within the humanities, was able to secure the support of the Flemish bishops and the most important Catholic organisations for the initiative. On 7 July 1976, the academic authorities gave their approval for the establishment of a centre, which at a later stage would be supported by all faculties within the faculty of human sciences.

The Centre was initially called KDOC (Documentation and Research Centre for Religion, Culture and Society) in order to distinguish it from the Nijmegen KDC and to make it clear that the "O" (for onderzoek in Dutch, which stands for 'research') in the name referred to the research function, which was of great importance in the overall set-up of the Centre. Another difference with the KDC was that the contribution of the Catholic organisation was more substantial in the Leuven institution. This would later be renamed KADOC, an acronym that was easier to pronounce.

After the approval of the academic authorities had been obtained, it took another two years before the KADOC could open its doors to the public in October 1978.

The Centre first moved into the former library of the Faculty of Theology at the Maria Theresa College. In 1981, it was housed in the attic of the central university library, which had become vacant after the departure of the UCL from Leuven. Finally, in 1990 it would move to its current site, the former monastery of the Friars Minor in the Vlamingenstraat.

The successive relocation operations indicate that the KADOC had grown considerably over the years. In the first ten years of its existence, the Center devoted its main attention to the acquiring and processing documentation. The Centre's collections were comprised of three categories: archive, library and audio-visual material, including not only the historical but also the contemporary documentation of Catholic organizations and prominent figures. The Center committed itself to valorising this documentation for the benefit of the research world, the media sector and the wider community. This was achieved through rapid access (inventory), the organization of exhibitions and various forms of research services.

The structural approach of KADOC was quickly adopted in Flanders.The AMSAB (Archive and Museum of the Socialist Workers' Movement) was established in 1980, the Liberal Archive in 1982 and the Archives and Documentation Center of Flemish Nationalism in 1984. Very quickly, an understanding was established between these centers, which are committed to preserving and valorising the documentary heritage of civil society in Flanders. The political authorities, both at the provincial, Flemish and national level, gradually recognised the usefulness of these centres, which played a complementary to the public archives and they started to provide them financial support. Of great importance was the decree that was passed in the Flemish Parliament on 27 June 1985. This decree entailed official recognition of the four aforementioned private-law documentation centers and awarded them a recurring subsidy. The financing provided was rather modest, but it nevertheless gave the centers a more solid material basis.

The KADOC preserves and discloses an impressive collection of archives, data, and heritage dating back to the second half of the 18th century that has emerged from the interplay between religion, culture and society in a Belgian, European and global context. In 2016, KADOC heritage collections contained 32 kilometres of archival units, 322,000 books, and 1,000 periodicals. These KADOC collections have an important European and even global dimension: they document interactions between Europe and the Americas, Asia and Africa that were intermediated by missionaries, political movements, churches, NGOs and migrants, and have shaped the world we live in. Political and social developments such as the development of civil society, the welfare state, democratization, European integration, and secularization are documented in the collections of political movements and politicians with a European/international profile, trade unions, NGOs, and religious congregations. KADOC stimulates international research in its collections by organizing international conferences, by launching networks with European universities and partner-institutions, by publishing innovative studies, and by hosting junior and senior researchers from across the world.

KADOC's collections can be searched via:

• LIMO

• LIAS

• ODIS

• Archiefbank Vlaanderen