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It’s a bit late, but since there is an interest in it, here is the schedule for the Holy Week celebrations in the Dutch cathedrals. As ever, things may change at any time, but since this information is taken from the various diocesan websites, it should simply be accurate.
Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden, Cathedral of St. Joseph:
Wednesday, 19:30: Chrism Mass
Maundy Thursday, 19:00: Mass offered by Bishop Gerard de Korte
Good Friday, 14:00: Stations of the Cross for children
Good Friday, 15:00: Stations of the Cross
Good Friday, 19:00: Service of the Passion of the Lord
Holy Saturday, 22:00: Easter Vigil
Easter Sunday, 11:00: Mass
Easter Monday, 11:00: Mass
Archdiocese of Utrecht, Cathedral of St. Elisabeth:
Wednesday, 19:00: Chrism Mass (at the Church of St Mary in Apeldoorn).
Wednesday, 21:00: Tenebrae and Lauds, followed by silent prayer until 8 o’clock the next morning
Maundy Thursday, 19:30: Mass offered by Cardinal Wim Eijk
Maundy Thursday, 21:30 Tenebrae and Lauds
Good Friday, 8:00: Morning Prayers
Good Friday, 15:00: Stations of the Cross (at the church of St. Augustine)
Good Friday, 19:30: Service of the Passion of the Lord, led by Cardinal Eijk
Good Friday, 21:30: Tenebrae and Lauds
Holy Saturday, 16:00-17:00: Confession
Holy Saturday, 21:00: Easter Vigil, offered by Cardinal Eijk
Easter Sunday, 10:30: Mass offered by Cardinal Eijk
Easter Monday, 10:30: Mass
Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam, Cathedral Basilica of St. Bavo:
Wednesday, 19:30: Chrism Mass (for both the diocese and the Military Ordinariate).
Maundy Thursday, 19:30: Mass
Good Friday, 15:00: Stations of the Cross
Good Friday, 19:30: Service of the Passion of the Lord, led by Bishop Jos Punt
Good Friday, 21:00: Tenebrae
Holy Saturday, 21:30: Easter Vigil
Easter Sunday, 10:00: Mass offered by Bishop Punt
Easter Monday, 10:00: Mass
Diocese of Rotterdam, Cathedral of Sts. Lawrence and Elisabeth:
Wednesday, 19:30: Chrism Mass
Maundy Thursday, 19:30: Mass, followed by a prayer vigil until 7 o’clock the next morning
Good Friday, 10:30: Stations of the Cross for children
Good Friday, 15:00: Stations of the Cross
Good Friday, 19:30: Service of the Passion of the Lord
Holy Saturday: 22:30: Easter Vigil, offered by Bishop Hans van den Hende
Easter Sunday, 11:00: Mass offered by Bishop van den Hende
Easter Monday, 11:30: Mass offered by Bishop van den Hende
Diocese of Breda, Cathedral of St. Anthony:
Wednesday, 19:00: Chrism Mass (at the church of St. Gummarus in Wagenberg).
Maundy Thursday, 19:00: Mass, offered by Bishop Jan Liesen
Good Friday, 15:00: Service of the Passion of the Lord, led by Bishop Liesen
Good Friday, 19:00: Stations of the Cross, led by Bishop Liesen
Holy Saturday, 21:00: Easter Vigil, offered by Bishop Liesen
Easter Sunday, 10:30: Mass, offered by Bishop Liesen
Easter Monday, 10:30: Mass (at the Begijnhof chapel)
Diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch, Cathedral Basilica of St. John:
Wednesday, 19:00: Chrism Mass
Maundy Thursday, 19:30: Mass
Good Friday, 15:00: Service of the Passion of the Lord
Good Friday, 19:00: Stations of the Cross
Holy Saturday, 22:00: Easter Vigil
Easter Sunday, 10:00: Mass
Easter Sunday, 11:45: Mass
Easter Monday, 11:00: Mass
Diocese of Roermond, Cathedral of St. Christopher:
Wednesday, 19:00: Chrism Mass
Maundy Thursday, 18:30: Mass, offered by Bishop Everard de Jong (at the Munster)
Good Friday, 15:00: Stations of the Cross, led by Bishop Frans Wiertz
Good Friday, 19:00: Service of the Passion of the Lord, led by Bishop Wiertz (at the Munster)
Holy Saturday, 20:30: Easter Vigil offered by Bishop Wiertz
Easter Sunday, 11:30: Mass offered by Bishop Wiertz
Easter Monday, 11:30: Mass
Marking the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI, which becomes effective in the evening of 28 February, all Dutch and Flemish dioceses will be offering a thanksgiving Mass for his pontificate. With the exception of Haarlem-Amsterdam and Antwerp, all will do so on the day of abdication itself.
The two metropolitan archdioceses, Utrecht and Mechelen-Brussels, will feature the most extensive celebrations. In Utrecht, a Mass will be offered at 12:30 at St. Catherine’s cathedral, which will be followed by Holy Hour, a sung Rosary, Vespers and Benediction at 6. Whether Cardinal Eijk will attend this day is unclear. Mechelen-Brussels will offer no less than three Masses, all at 8pm: In Brussels by Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard and auxiliary Bishop Jean Kockerols, in Louvain (St. Peter’s) by auxiliary Bishop Leon Lemmens, and in Waver (St. John the Baptist) by auxiliary Bishop Jean-Luc Hudsyn.
The other thanksgiving Masses will take place at 6pm in Bruges (by Bishop Jozef De Kesel), at 7pm in Groningen (Bishop Gerard de Korte), Breda (Bishop Jan Liesen) and Roermond (Bishop Frans Wiertz), and at 8pm in Ghent (Bishop Luc Van Looy) and Hasselt (Bishop Patrick Hoogmartens). All Masses will be at the respective cathedrals of the dioceses, except in Breda, where the Mass will be offered at the chapel of the Bovendonk seminary in Hoeven, and Hasselt, where the Basilica of Our Lady will host the Mass
The next day, 1 March, auxiliary Bishop Jan Hendriks will offer a Mass at 7:30pm, and on 3 March, Antwerp’s Bishop Johan Bonny will offer one at 5pm.
In addition to these Masses, parishes, communities and other societies may of course also mark the abdication with Masses or prayer services.
Just before day broke today, a raging fire reduced the church of St. Clement in Nes, on the island of Ameland, to ashes. Only the walls of the island’s sole Catholic church remain standing, the mayor of the island has said.
The devastating fire comes just two days after the new pastoral team was presented by the bishop. Under the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden’s consolidation of parishes, the local island parish is to be united with several mainland parishes. Parish priest Fr. Paul Verheijen travelled to the island this morning to support the local community.
Bishop Gerard de Korte calls the situation “dramatic”, but expects the church to be rebuilt and the local Protestant communities to be hospitable to the Catholic faithful on Ameland.
The church of St. Clemens was the church where Cardinal Jan de Jong, archbishop of Utrecht from 1936 to 1955, was baptised and where he offered his first Mass. In his days, the territory of Groningen-Leeuwarden was still part of the Archdiocese of Utrecht. The church was a national monument, built in 1877 by famed architect Pierre Cuypers, who also designed the diocese’s cathedral of St. Joseph in Groningen.
In 1946 the archbishop of Utrecht became the first resident cardinal in the Netherlands since the Reformation. But Cardinal Jan de Jong need not have been the first.
Historical research indicates that in 1911 Pope Saint Pius X had his eyes on Archbishop Henricus van de Wetering as the first Dutch cardinal of modern times. But the publication of his encyclical Editae saepe, a year earlier, made that rather difficult, as that encyclical on Saint Charles Borromeo brought forth the fury of Queen Wilhelmina, who was less then pleased with the strong anti-Protestant language in the papal publication.
Making Archbishop van de Wetering, who headed the Archdiocese of Utrecht from 1895 to 1929, a cardinal would unnecessarily antagonise the queen and perhaps increase the anti-Catholic tendencies existing in Dutch society at that time.
Instead, Pius X went for a safer option: a Dutch cardinal, but one who was working in the Curia, on the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law and as general consultor of the Redemptorist order: Willem Marinus van Rossum.
After Cardinal de Jong, every archbishop of Utrecht was created a cardinal, if he wasn’t one already, such as Cardinal Willebrands.
Photo credit: Katholiek Documentatie Centrum, Nijmegen
Palliative care “does not add days to life, but life to days.”
Just some food for thought courtesy of Cardinal Eijk. He spoke them at last Saturday’s annual day for the deacons of the archdiocese of Utrecht, in an address about care at life’s end.
There’s more in the cardinal’s reflection that is worth some attention and reflection. A medical doctor himself, he rightly implies that society’s thoughts and opinions on life and death are by now so far removed from what they have been for centuries, and from what the Church today still maintains, that many today don’t even know what the Church teaches. They assume they know, but reality is different.
Likewise, many people assume that there are only two choices when faced with an incurable illness: unbearable suffering until the end, or ending a patient’s life. Reality is much more diverse: through palliative care we may remove the pain and suffering and endeavour to bring whatever ray of light we can into a person’s final days; “life to days”. In that way we not only ease a person’s suffering and respect the sanctity of his or her life but we also express the awareness that no person is alone, that no life exists in solitude. A life, even one in its final stages, even one marked by illness, has effects on other lives, and too often that effect is positive beyond our comprehension. We certainly can’t anticipate it.
And that is a far more realistic approach to life in general.
A few days ago the financial numbers over the 2011 Kerkbalans were published. Kerkbalans is the overall campaign taking care of the financing of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, as well as several Protestant church communities. It supports the local parish initiatives of raising money, as the state nor the diocese in question does so. The money raised by the parishes goes to support their own activities, the salaries of priests, deacons, pastoral workers and others, the maintenance of buildings and contributions to the diocese. Kerkbalans makes up the bulk of this, while the remainder is made of money raised by possessions and investments.
The total income of the parishes has dropped 3%, compared with 2010, to a total of some 164 million euros (218.8 USD). The parishes expended some 179 million euros (238.8 USD), a drop of 2%, but still an imbalance when compared to what came in. But a light on the horizon as that this is the first instance in years that expenditure dropped. Shortage has increased to more than 15 million euros (20 million USD).
Comparing the numbers per diocese, it is clear that the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden, although the smallest of the seven Dutch dioceses, tops the list with the highest percentual Kerkbalans income: 52% of the total, some 3.5 million euros (4.7 million USD). But as far as collections go, it is in the bottom tier, with a mere 10%. The Diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch tops the list in exact numbers,, with a total income of 36 million euros (48 million USD), except when it comes to collections (topped by the Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam with 4.5 million euros (6 million USD), and Kerkbalans (topped by the Archdiocese of Utrecht with 14.6 million euros (19.5 million USD). All these numbers are strictly the income of parishes.
When it comes to expenses, ‘s Hertogenbosch also leads that list, with 40 million euros (53.4 USD). Utrecht leads in te categories of personnel costs (15.4 million euros (20.5 million USD)) and the costs of services and pastoral care (4.5 million euros (6 million USD)).
There is an imbalance, then, which keeps growing, certainly where Kerkbalans is concerned. This is a serious issue, and most dioceses have paid attention to this, or are in the process of doing so. The most visible step is the merger of parishes and consolidation of assets of local communities. This is taking place in Groningen-Leeuwarden, Utrecht, ‘s Hertogenbosch and Haarlem-Amsterdam. Another, more painful, choice for cutting costs is the slimming down of personnel numbers.
But in the end, income needs to be raised. It is perhaps a measure of how successful parishes are in engaging the faithful in their territory. The people are there (albeit in dwindling numbers), I think, but with fairly low numbers of frequent churchgoers (nowhere more than 7 or 8 % of the total number of Catholics), the money isn’t being raised when Kerkbalans and collections are only brought to people’s attention in the church or via church media such as parish magazines and websites.
With the publication of these numbers, Kerkbalans 2013 was also launched. It once again follows the renewed template launched in 2005, which intensified local efforts. Where these intensified efforts are put into practice, Kerkbalans reports, income increases. This is perhaps clearest in the Diocese of Roermond, where Kerkbalans income has remained at the same level as in 2010. Overall, some 41% of Catholic families contribute in some to Kerkbalans. This is the same percentage as in 2010, although the number of Catholics has dropped with 75,000. In total, there were 4,091,000 Catholics in the Netherlands in 2010, which means that each Catholic would contribute 14 euros (19 USD). Taking only the 41% who actually did, we see that every person contribute some 77 euros (102 USD) to Kerkbalans, which is a drop from 79 euros (105 USD) per person.
It’s a week ago now, but I figured it would be nice to give an impression of how the Year of Faith was opened in the Netherlands. All dioceses marked the occasion with special Masses in either the cathedral or another major church in the diocese.
The Archdiocese of Utrecht played host to a national symposium on the four great Constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. Some 250 people attended, a number that could perhaps have been higher if the symposium wasn’t open to clergy and pastoral workers only.
The Mass which started off the symposium was offered by Wim Cardinal Eijk, the archbishop of Utrecht. In his homily he looked back at the fruits of the Council, but also the responses to it. The cardinal noted that, “On the one hand there are people who are disappointed, because the Council did not bring the fruits they had hoped for. And on the other hand there are people who make the reproach that the current crisis in the Church was caused by the Council.” He went on to say that both responses are unjust. The roots of secularisation were already laid well before the Council – as, for example, Blessed Titus Brandsma already noticed – and the discussion about celibacy and liturgy was already being held in the 1950s.
In Breda Bishop Jan Liesen, pictured at right during the symposium mentioned above, offered a Mass in the cathedral of St. Anthony. About the Year of Faith he said:
“The Year of Faith is a year in which to listen to God, to the spirit which has been poured out in our hearts. Put differently: our Church does not revolve around an organisation, but around a living person, Christ. The Gospels speak of how Jesus continuously presented people with the question, “Who do you say I am?” Other religions may have a book, a great way of life or something. We Christians do not have that, at least not as the heart of our faith: we have the person of Jesus Christ.”
Bishop Liesen also spoke about our spiritual life, which we need to nurture in order to be evangelisers ourselves.
“To make work of your spiritual life – how do you do that? It is a matter of choosing, really choosing. In our time we have somewhat forgotten what choosing is, maybe or probably because we have such material wealth. We can walk past shop windows in long shopping streets and pick what we like. We then think that we have made a choice, but we haven’t. We were looking for something and left much where it was and brought that one thing home, but that is not choosing. There comes a time when we don’t like what we have brought home anymore and then we’ll get something else. That is not choosing: it is merely the satisfaction of a desire, whether it is real or imaginary. Because of such a materialistic way of life, which is being promoted in all manners imaginable and which we should not underestimate or make illusions about when it concerns ourselves – because of that way of life we sometimes deal with people in the same way, and we drop them when they no longer suit us. But really choosing when it concerns a person means: choosing that one as he or she is and not dripping them to choose another. That is the basis of true friendship, that is the basis of marriage and family, and that is also the basis of spiritual life, of the conversation with God.”
The final topic that Bishop Liesen touched upon was the Eucharist. He re-emphasised the central place that that sacrament has in our faith, and his desire (and presumably intention as well) to cut down the number of Communion service in his diocese. These services have, in many places, become more of a habit and a celebration of the community instead of a necessity when there is no priest available, and water down the valuable role of the Eucharist in our lives.
In the Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam, the Year of Faith was opened at the shrine of Our Lady of Need in Heiloo. In his homily, auxiliary Bishop Jan Hendriks spoke about faith, saying:
“Faith is a mercy and we can be grateful that we have received that mercy.
Faith requires surrender, giving up control, confidence that you are safe in the loving care of a heavenly Father, that everything will turn out alright, no matter how many setbacks and suffering you may find on your way.
No matter how much evil and how many problems there are: because of faith our life is an ascent to God. Without faith it would be nothing but decomposition, descent, a pointless event with a sad ending.
Faith also requires humility, because it entails us bowing down for a higher power, for someone who can dictate the law to you.
Our Catholic faith lets us know Jesus, our Saviour and Lord. It lets us understand the Holy Spirit, who resides in our hearts and gently leads us to the heavenly Father, who is source and purpose of all of creation.
Through our Catholic faith we also got to know and venerate Mary, who is our Mother through Jesus, as an example of faith, as intercessor and mediator.”
And about evangelisation, he added:
“Whatever we do in the Church, we must first be Christians.
Every priest, every believer must first be a Christian.
The work that we do in the Church can’t be an exterior job, but an expression of our love for Christ, expression of our faith.”
Bishop Antoon Hurkmans, who opened the Year of Faith in the cathedral basilica of St. John in Den Bosch, spoke about having faith in our time:
“Today every faithful is individually faced with a great challenge. The Second Vatican Council already foresaw this. This Council was intended to bring the Church up to date, a way of returning to the source. It again placed Holy Scripture at the heart. It looked for the vital sources of the Church of the future in the young Church of the Church Fathers. You and I, we are confronted with an increasingly secularised world. We shouldn’t want to walk away from that. We should be strong by resisting the difficulties of this time and witness of our faith in the world of today, with the sources of the Council. There are numerous difficulties. The Church in our part of the world grows smaller, we must dispose of church buildings. It’ll be increasingly difficult to pass on the faith to future generations. Acting according to the faith in marriage, in celibacy, in politics is increasingly at odds with what’s going on in society. What matters now is to believe or not: to entrust yourself to God. To travel the way with Him. When you have faith, confess this faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit openly. God will take care of you. He will give you life. Confess your faith in the Church. Do not stay alone. Participate, as the Council asks, in the life of the Church. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Church’s life. Be there, every Sunday. Immerse yourself in the liturgy, in Holy Scripture and never forget to serve the poor. Faith must be expressed in action.”
In Roermond Bishop Frans Wiertz referred to the collection of ten local Saints and Blesseds, from 4th-century St. Servatius to St. Teresia Benedicta of the Cross, who was killed in Auschwitz in 1942, who were gathered in the cathedral of St. Christopher as examples of the faith. The bishop said about this:
“We are gathered here as faithful from all directions of our local Church. And we are not alone, but in the presence of a number of prominent blesseds and saints from our area, men and women who represent the faith of many centuries, who represent all those people who preceded us in the faith.”
In the Diocese of Rotterdam, Bishop Hans van den Hende opened the Year of Faith in the Basilica of St. Liduina and Our Lady of the Rosary in Schiedam. In his homily he discussed Pope Benedict’s Apostolic letter Porta Fidei, in which the Holy Father announced the Year of Faith, and on the Second Vatican Council, but also on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Code of Canon Law. Summarising the Year of Faith, the bishops said:
“The Year of Faith, brothers and sisters, regards all aspects of our life in faith. To confess that God exists, that His Son became men, that the Holy Spirit always wants to inspire us. To celebrate our faith in the Eucharist and the other sacraments and to be careful with the Words of Scripture. We do so as true listeners to the message of God and also by truly living as Christians and to be recognisable in our words and actions as friends of the Lords, and fourth, to keep up the conversation with the Lord.”
In Groningen, Bishop Gerard de Korte also opened the Year of Faith, with a Mass at the cathedral of St. Joseph, but the text of his homily is sadly not available online.
Photo credit: [1], [2] Ramon Mangold, [5] Peter van Mulken
Yesterday saw the publication of the first report on how the recommendations to deal with the sexual abuse crisis in the Church in the Netherlands, as drafted by Mr . Wim Deetman and his committee, have been implemented. This report is the first in a series that will regular track these implementations and offer corrective measures if necessary.
As the report, at 80 pages, is lengthy, I have not yet been able to do anything but skim through it. But since there are several interesting subjects for blog posts to draft from it, I didn’t want to wait too long with writing about it. First u, is an overview of the size of the problem.
Every diocese has been individually requested to present an overview of how many claims they have received and how far along the process of handling them has advanced. The dioceses have als been tasked with answering a questionnaire on such subjects as how sexuality and celibacy are handled in the seminaries for priests, deacons and pastoral workers, how newly ordained priests receive further training, if and how claims are treated outside the standard procedures, the contacts between victims and representatives of the dioceses, including the bishops, how diocesan websites inform and redirect, and how last year’s final report has been published and made known within the dioceses.
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The Archdiocese of Utrecht has received 51 claims since May of 2010. Of these, 24 have resulted in a verdict from the complaints committee, and 1 one of these also to a verdict from the compensation committee. There are also several claims which have not yet advanced beyond the announcement that a claim will be made in the future.
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The Diocese of Breda has received 16 claims, or announcements of claims, since June of 2010. 7 of these are true claims, and 2 have received a verdict from the complaints committee.
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The Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden received 7 claims since June of 2010. One of these was lodged twice. One has advanced beyond the reception of the claim.
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The Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam received 22 claims since March of 2010.Three have reached a verdict from the complaints committee and one has received financial compensation. Another claim is currently under investigation and may possibly receive financial compensation. The diocese also mentions that in the case that has received compensation, the abuser himself replied to the claim of a victim.
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The Diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch received 34 complaints since May of 2010. 26 have been handled by the complaints committee, and in case the victim appealed the verdict. In three cases, the abuser himself replied to the victim’s claim.
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The Diocese of Roermond has received 22 claims of which 15 have advanced to a verdict from the complaints committee, and a further four from the compensation committee.
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The Diocese of Rotterdam, lastly, lists 36 claims, of which 16 pertain to other dioceses or religious orders. Six claims have been judged justified and two of these received financial compensation.
The reasons who a fairly low number of claims have led to verdicts or compensation are myriad. Firstly, the processes involved are slow. Secondly, not all victims may have desired anything but recognition of what has been done to them. And then there is also the sad fact that not all claims are justified.
In total, the Dutch dioceses have received 188 claims of sexual abuse by priests or other workers in the Church, many of whom are no longer alive. The religious orders have also received claims, but that’s a topic for another blog posts.
The sanctuaries of Catholic Churches usually feature the name and portrait of the local bishop. This is a benefit to visiting priests to know, if they are from outside the diocese in question, what name they should mention in the Eucharistic prayer. It also shows the role of the local bishop in every church in his jurisdiction. He is the chief shepherd of all the faithful there, while local priests assist him in this work.
Sometimes these portraits need updating, for example when there is a new bishop, but also when the sitting bishop is made a cardinal, as happened earlier this year in the Archdiocese of Utrecht. The archbishop was created a cardinal, and so the archdiocese has created new official photographs. Cardinal Wim Eijk is now photographed wearing a cardinal’s red, as opposed to the purple worn by bishops.
“At the moment of adoration, we are all on the same plane, kneeling before the Sacrament of Love. The common and ministerial priesthoods are united in Eucharistic worship. It is a very beautiful and significant experience, which we have experienced several times in Saint Peter’s Basilica, and also in the unforgettable vigils with young people – I recall, for example, those of Cologne, London, Zagreb, Madrid. It is evident to all that these moments of Eucharistic vigil prepare the celebration of the Holy Mass, prepare hearts for the encounter, so that it is more fruitful. To be all together in prolonged silence before the Lord present in his Sacrament, is one of the most genuine experiences of our being Church, which is accompanied in a complementary way with the celebration of the Eucharist, listening to the Word of God, singing, approaching together the table of the Bread of life. Communion and contemplation cannot be separated, they go together. To really communicate with another person I must know him, I must be able to be in silence close to him, to hear him and to look at him with love. True love and true friendship always live of the reciprocity of looks, of intense, eloquent silences full of respect and veneration, so that the encounter is lived profoundly, in a personal not a superficial way. And, unfortunately, if this dimension is lacking, even sacramental communion itself can become, on our part, a superficial gesture. Instead, in true communion, prepared by the colloquy of prayer and of life, we can say to the Lord words of confidence as those that resounded a short while ago in the Responsorial Psalm:
“O Lord, I am thy servant; I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid.
Thou hast loosed my bonds.
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord”
(Psalm 115:16-17).”
Pope Benedict XVI
Homily for Corpus Christi, 7 June 2012
Photo credit: author’s own, Father Hans Pauw displays the Blessed Sacrament for Adoration during a meeting of young people of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, 10 June 2012.
