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Making Christ visible in the world – a new priest’s first acts
Tomorrow Cardinal Wim Eijk will ordain Deacon Joost Baneke to the priesthood. In an interview for diocesan magazine Op Tocht, the nestor of the latest class of new priests stresses the importance of...
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In the light of MH17: “…”
Of course the world is full of violence and death these days, from Gaza to the Central African Republic, and from Syria to the Ukraine, but sometimes it all hits particularly close to home. 285...
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“Never again” the bishops warn in the wake of rising antisemitism
Following recent and fairly sudden signs of increasing antisemitism in both the Netherlands and other western countries, the Dutch bishops have issued a statement condemning any hate against Jewish and...
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When suddenly… a new Missal translation
And so, on an August afternoon last week, the Dutch bishops announced the first fruits of a 2001 request from Rome to realise a new, more accurate translation of the Roman Missal. The process has long...
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From six to one – the seminary question in the Netherlands
The old debate about the number of seminaries in the Netherlands was restarted this week as the rectors of two of them – Fathers Jan Vries of Rolduc (Diocese of Roermond) and Gerard Bruggink (pictured...
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New beginnings and returning home at the Dutch seminaries
Everywhere the summer holidays are over, and that means that the seminaries are staring their new academic years as well. Notable among them is the Ariëns Institute of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, which...
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Enter the Synod members
Yesterday the Holy See published the list of participants in the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family. Of course, there are the usual suspects: the heads of the Roman Curia departments, the standing...
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Cardinal Erdö –“Europe needs Christ!”
Cardinal Péter Erdö, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest in Hungary, Relator General of the upcoming Synod of Bishops, but today in the first place president of the Council of European Episcopal...
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With a strong reminder, Pope Francis launches the Synod
Serious and solemn faces this morning in St. Peter’s Basilica – solemn for Mass and serious in the face of the duties lying ahead for the participants in the Synod, among them Cardinal Wim Eijk (sixth...
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Synod Day 1 – First impressions
^Orthodox metropolitan of Belgium, Athenagoras, who is a guest at the Synod, snapped this photo of Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Mechelen-Brussels. Also visible, at the far right, is Bishop...
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“A holy temple in the Lord”– a papal letter to the Church of the Frisians
The national Church of the Netherlands in Rome, the church of Saints Michael and Magnus in Borgo, better known as the Church of the Frisians, celebrated the 25th anniversary of the renewed use of the...
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Simonis, the biography
Even the numbers are impressive. Author Ton Crijnen spent an estimated 750 hours in conversation, spread over four years, with Cardinal Ad Simonis to create his biography of the retired Archbishop of...
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2014, a year in review
As the year ends, it is once more time to look back at the past year in this blog. It wasn’t quite 2013, but there was still enough to write and think about. I have been a bit less active in writing,...
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Doing more with less – how to face the challenge of church closings
I recently made my Dutch-language blogging debut over at Broodje Paap, and the subject of that first post – how to respond to necessary church closing and parish mergers – remains topical. Today,...
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The compatibility of different approaches – two bishops against the tide of...
Again, the rivalry between bishops seems to be rearing its head, if we are to believe the media. Earlier I wrote about Cardinal Eijk’s efforts in dealing with church closings and parish mergers, all in...
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For Family Synod 2, Cardinal Eijk returns to Rome
The first group of participants in coming autumn’s Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops has been ratified by Pope Francis. Unlike for last year’s assembly, which was an Extraordinary one,...
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The consistory of the marginalised – a look back
And so the Church gains twenty new cardinals. Much has already been said about the unique nature of the group, their places of origin and pastoral and other qualities which would spell out much...
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For Lent, the cardinal once more on church closings
In his letter for Lent, Cardinal Eijk once again broaches the subject of church closings, the topic for which he has been criticised so strongly in recent months. Even now, there is a petition on its...
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The cardinal’s mailbox – 12,000 signatures against a non-existent policy
Cardinal Eijk is going to have a full mailbox (again) soon, as no less than 12,000 signatures collected by protest group Bezield Verband will come his way. These signatures, and the group as a whole,...
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Proclaiming the faith, not building churches
In an interview during the final day of the archdiocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, Cardinal Wim Eijk once again said what the need to close church buildings should actualy lead to: not anger and protest,...
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