Bishop Bluyssen in hospital

86-year-old Bishop Johannes Bluyssen - emeritus ordinary of ‘s Hertogenbosch and the sole surviving Dutch Council father – has spent the past few days in hospital, suffering from undisclosed heart problems. He has already been moved out of intensive care, where he was admitted with breathing problems and severe fatigue. Happily, the news broke today that things have quite improved, and from one of the priests of the cathedral we hear that Msgr. Bluyssen may return to his home at ‘s Hertogenbosch’s St. John’s seminary on Sunday.

In the meantime, as the third-oldest bishop of our little country is not out of the woods yet, let’s call on the intercession of St. John of God, patron saint of heart patients, for the bishop’s increasing and continuing wellbeing.

Council survivors

For the startof the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI intends to celebrate the opening Mass with the surviving Council fathers. But how many of the bishops who attended the Second Vatican Council are still alive, and, come to think of it, who are they?

With the help of the great resource that is Catholic Hierarchy, I have compiled the following list. The bishops are listed according to their last name. Also included are their function(s) at the time of the Council and their current age.

• ANGELINI, Fiorenzo: Curial official (now 95)
• ARINZE, Francis: Coadjutor Bishop of Onitsha (now 79)
• BANTIGUE Y NATIVIDAD, Pedro: Auxiliary Bishop of Manila (now 92)
• BETTAZZI, Luigi: Auxiliary Bishop of Bologna (now 88)
• BLANCHOUD, Moisés Julio: Auxiliary Bishop and later Bishop of Río Cuarto (now 88)
• BLUYSSEN, Johannes Willem Maria: Auxiliary Bishop of ‘s Hertogenbosch (now 86)
• BOWERS, Joseph Oliver: Bishop of Accra (now 102)
• CÁCERES GONZÁLEZ, Roberto Reinaldo:Bishop of Melo (now 91)
• CALHEIROS NOVAES (DE NOVAIS), Waldyr: Auxiliary Bishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro (now 88)
• CANESTRI, Giovanni: Auxiliary Bishop of Roma (now 93)
• CAPUCCI, Hilarion: Auxiliary Bishop of Antiochia (Melkite) (now 90)
• CAZZARO BERTOLLO, Savino Bernardo Maria: Vicar Apostolic of Aysén (now 87)
• COELHO, Jaime Luiz: Bishop of Maringá (now 95)
• CORNEJO RADAVERO, Mario Renato: Auxiliary Bishop of Lima (now 84) (left the Church in 1969)
• CHARBONNEAU, Paul-Émile: Auxiliary Bishop of Ottawa, later Bishop of Hull (now 90)
• CH’ENG SHIH-KUANG, Paul: Auxiliary Bishop of Taipei (now 96)
• CÍRIO, Armando: Bishop of Toledo (now 96)
• CUNIBERTI, Angelo: Vicar Apostolic of Florencia (now 91)
• DE ARAÚJO SALES, Eugênio: Auxiliary Bishop and later Apostolic Administrator of Natal, later also Apostolic Adminstrator of São Salvador de Bahia (now 91)
• DE ROO, Remi Joseph: Bishop of Victoria (now 88)
• DELLY, Emmanuel III (Emmanuel-Karim): Auxiliary Bishop of Babylon (Chaldean) (now 84)
• DEMARTEAU, Wilhelmus Joannes (Guillaume Jean): Bishop of Bandjarmasin (now 95)
• DIAS NOGUEIRA, Eurico: Bishop of Vila Cabral (now 89)
• DIAZ CUEVA, José Gabriel: Auxiliary Bishop of Guayaquil (now 87)
• DÍAZ MERCHÁN, Gabino: Bishop of Guadix (now 86)
• DOSSEH-ANYRON, Robert-Casimir Tonyui Messan: Bishop of Lomé (now 86)
• DUPONT, Georges-Hilaire: Bishop of Pala (now 92)
• FERNANDES DE ARAÚJO, Serafim: Auxiliary Bishop of Belo Horizonte (now 87)
• GARAVITO JIMÉNEZ, Gregorio: Auxiliary Bishop of Villavicencio (now 93)
• GARAYGORDÓBIL BERRIZBEITIA, Victor: Prelate of Los Ríos (now 96)
• GARCIA AYALA, José de Jesús: Auxiliary Bishop of Campeche (now 102)
• HADDAD, Grégoire: Auxiliary Bishop of Beirut and Jbeil (Melkite) (now 87)
• HAYES, James Martin: Auxiliary Bishop of Halifax (now 88)
• HERRERA RIERA, Eduardo: Auxiliary Bishop of Cumaná (now 84)
• HUNTHAUSEN, Raymond Gerhardt: Bishop of Helena (now 90)
• JOBST, John: Vicar Apostolic of Kimberley in Western Australia (now 92)
• LANDRIAULT, Jacques: Auxiliary Bishop of Alexandria in Ontario, later Bishop of Hearst (now 90)
• LEONARDO, Felice: Bishop of Telese o Cerreto Sannita (now 97)
• LEULIET, Géry-Jacques-Charles: Bishop of Amiens (now 102)
• LIMA DOS SANTOS, Caetano Antônio: Bishop if Ilhéus (now 95) (renounced the priesthood in 1970)
• LIRA, Pedro Reginaldo: Bishop of San Francisco (now 96)
• LOURDUSAMY, Duraisamy Simon: Auxiliary Bishop of Bangalore, later Coadjutor Archbishop of Bangalore (now 88)
• MALBOIS, Albert-Georges-Yves: Auxiliary Bishop of Versailles (now 96)
• MATHIAS, Alphonsus: Bishop of Chikmagalur (now 84)
• MCKEON, Myles: Auxiliary Bishop of Perth (now 93)
• MCNAUGHTON, William John: Bishop of Incheon (now 85)
• NGANGA A NDZANDO, Louis: Auxiliary Bishop of Lisala, later Bishop of Lisala (now 89)
• NICOLOSI, Salvatore: Bishop of Lipari (now 90)
• NKALANGA, Placidus Gervasius: Auxiliary Bishop of Bukoba (now 93)
• NOËL, Laurent: Auxiliary Bishop of Québec (now 92)
• ODONGO, James: Auxiliary Bishop of Tororo (now 81)
• PADILLA LOZANO, José Guadalupe: Bishop of Veracruz (now 91)
• PEARCE, George Hamilton: Vicar Apostolic of Archipelago of the Navigators (now 91)
• PIMIENTO RODRIGUEZ, José de Jesús: Bishop of Montería, later of Garzón-Neiva (now 93)
• PIÑERA CARVALLO, Bernardino: Bishop of Temuco (now 96)
• PIRES, José Maria: Bishop of Aracuaí, later Archbishop of Paraíba (now 93)
• PLOURDE, Joseph-Aurèle: Auxiliary Bishop of Alexandria in Ontario (now 97)
• QUINTERO ARCE, Carlos: Bishop of Ciudad Valles (now 92)
• RAMALHO DE ALARCÓN SANTIAGO, José Mauro: Bishop of Iguatú (now 87)
• RAMÍREZ SALAVERRÍA, Antonio José: Bishop of Maturín (now 94)
• RAMOUSSE, Yves-Georges-René: Vicar Apostolic of Phnom-Penh (now 84)
• RIBEIRO DE OLIVEIRA, Antônio: Auxiliary Bishop of Goiânia (now 86)
• SAHAGÚN DE LA PARRA, José de Jesús: Bishop of Tula (now 90)
• SANA, André: Bishop of Aqra (Chaldean) (now 91)
• SAPELAK, Andrés: Auxiliary Bishop of the Faithful of the Eastern Rites of Argentina (now 92)
• SEPÚLVEDA RUIZ-VELASCO, José Trinidad: Bishop of Tuxtla Gutiérrez (now 91)
• SFEIR, Nasrallah Pierre: Auxiliary Bishop of Antiochia (Maronite) (now 92)
• SOL, Andreas Peter Cornelius: Coadjutor Bishop of Amboina, later Bishop of Amboina (now 96)
• SZYMANSKI RAMÍREZ, Arturo Antonio: Coadjutor Bishop and later Bishop of San Andrés Tuxtla (now 90)
• TATO LOSADA, Eloy: Vicar Apostolic of San Jorge (now 88)
• THOHEY MAHN-GABY, Gabriel: Coadjutor Archbishop of Rangoon (now 84)
• TSIAHOANA, Albert Joseph: Auxiliary Bishop of Diego-Suárez (now 84)
• VAN CAUWELAERT, Jan: Bishop of Inongo (now 98)
• VERSTRAETE, Daniel Alphonse Omer: Prefect of Western Transvaal (now 87)
• VILNET, Jean-Félix-Albert-Marie: Bishop of Saint-Dié (now 90)
• WARREN, Douglas Joseph: Auxiliary Bishop of Wilcannia-Forbes (now 93)
• YOUN KONG-HI, Victorinus: Bishop of Suwon (now 87)
• ZARZA BERNAL, Anselmo: Bishop of Linares (now 96)

Two of the names in the list are printed in italics. They indicate the bishops who either renounced their priesthood or left the Church altogether, sometime after the Council. So, while they participated as Council Fathers, we should not expect them to make an appearance in Rome in October.

Many others may also not be able to make it, considering their advanced age. The youngest, Cardinal Arinze, is 79, many are in their in 80s and even 90s, and there are even three centenarians. Among those staying at home, I expect, is Bishop Bluyssen, the only living Dutch bishop who attended the Council – although, as the story goes, he was often left at home “to mind the store” as Bishop Bekkers attended the sessions in Rome.

It will be interesting to see at least some of the former movers and shakers of the Church launch a new effort of evangelisation and catechesis across the world.

A close call for a bishop

In the abuse crisis that we, for better or worse, have gotten somewhat acclimatised to, one of the most painful chapters is that of the castrations that took place to ‘cure’ men from homosexuality. Although this was, for a while, accepted medical practice, both in Church-run facilities and in secular institutions, the commotion about it is nothing but understandable.

Professor van Lieburg

Things seemed to get a bit worse this week, when medical historian Mart van Lieburg announced that he had evidence that an unnamed bishop had ordered the castration of a man sometime in the 1950s or 1960s. And that bishop would have still been alive. That last statement would have narrowed the number of possible names down to two. Of the Dutch bishops in the 1960s, only Bishops Jan Bluyssen (‘s Hertogenbosch, 1966-1983) and Huub Ernst (Breda, 1967-1992) are still alive today.

On Wednesday, during the same set of hearings in which Mr. Bakker of the previous blog post spoke, Professor van Lieburg came back from his initial statement, as Trouw reports today. He explains that a surgeon had been in contact with a bishop about castration: “The discussion with the surgeon took place over the telephone. I first want to hear on tape what he said precisely. But the conclusion that a bishop ordered castration is, as far as I’m concerned, premature. Perhaps, under the pressure of time, I didn’t express myself clearly.”

Contact between medical ethical committees and a bishop is not something that is cause for concern, Professor van Lieburg says.”There were medical ethical committees which discussed sensitive forms of treatment. There were Protestant ministers and also Catholic theologians on those committees. In the south, a surgeon would have likely had contact about that with someone from the Catholic Church.”

If anything, all this goes to show how much public perception has changed in the past 50 years. Although we don’t know the exact details of the contact that a bishop may have had with a surgeon who was to perform a castration, the response to even the possibility of it having happened is wildly different from the response that it would have received in the middle of the last century.

But that is no reason to say that, just because it was somewhat accepted at the time, we should just accept it now. It is in fact a very Catholic attitude to say that there is a morality that is not dependent on public opinion, but which exists because it is an integral part of creation. What was good and right in the past, is still that. The very same goes for what was bad and unjust.

Photo credit: RosaMedia

A golden anniversary to go unmarked

“Because of the actuality and out of respect for the victims of abuse, I consider it, in all humility, inappropriate to celebrate the anniversary of my ordination in a grandiose way.”

A short statement from Bishop Johannes Bluyssen who will mark the 50th anniversary of his consecration to bishop on 27 December. Or won’t mark it, as it turns out. An understandable decision, obviously, but a bit sad all the same. Plans were for the emeritus bishop of ‘s Hertogenbosch to offer a solemn Mass in the cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, whose feast day it’ll also be on the 27th.  The bishops age (he’ll turn 86 in April) and health did not allow for much more.

Bishop Bluyssen was ordained a priest in 1950 and a bishop in 1961, at the age of only 35. He worked as auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch, with Aëtus as titular see, and became ordinary after Bishop Willem Bekkers resigned in 1966. Bishop Bluyssen resigned from the post in 1984.

Bishop Bluyssen is one of only three bishops of Dutch decent who participated in the Second Vatican Council, although he would often remain at home while Bishop Bekkers went to Rome, and the only one who was bishop in a Dutch diocese. The others are Bishop Willem Demarteau, emeritus of Banjarmasin, and Bishop Andreas Sol of Amboina, both in Indonesia.

Catholic and secular media have recently interviewed Bishop Bluyssen for his anniversary. The bishop lamented the lack of elan he sees in the post-conciliar Church and criticises the actions of the diocese about anti-celibate and sanctioned priest Jan Peijnenburg. Msgr. Bluyssen admitted to knowing about the priest’s cohabitation with his girlfriend and cautioned them time and again. He didn’t see fit to remove Peijnenburg’s priestly faculties or sanction him in other ways, though.

Photo credit: Jaap van Eeden