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In the run-up to tomorrow’s inauguration of King Willem Alexander there has been much attention paid to Catholic notions of kingship. While Christ is the one King, the Church also teaches much about the duties of earthly kings. Bishop Jos Punt’s homily is an excellent example of the latter. It also contains an interesting glimpse of the religious landscape of the Netherlands and the role of tolerance, as well as a theological explanation of the globus cruciger. Recommended reading (for Dutch readers, the original text).
A recording of the Mass, by Dutch public television, may be viewed here.
In closing, some words by Father Jim Schilder, priest of the basilica of St. Nicholas:
“Today is the fifth Sunday of Easter. But is also two days before the inauguration of our Crown Prince. That is, you could say, a moment of renewal. A threshold to a new era, without breaking with the past. That is also what we see in this time of Easter. On the one hand it is a time of revolutionary renewal through the resurrection of Christ, and on the other hand a time of a new covenant rooted in the old. It is still about the way that God wants to travel with us, about his continuous invitation to follow Him. We can do this by answering the call of Jesus in today’s Gospel: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” This goes beyond the two commandments He gave before, and which were already present in the Old Testament: To love God, and your neighbour like yourself. In the Gospel of John He asks us to love each other as He has loved us. His love was characterised by the fact that His entire earthly life was devoted to the other. “I have come to serve.” May the same, we pray, also be true for our new head of state.”
Photo credit: [1] Isabel Nabuurs, [2] Fr. Jim Schilder.
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
Two days ago I wrote about the three weeks that Bishop Jos Punt lived as a hermit in Spain. Yesterday saw the publication of a short interview with the bishop on the diocesan website. I have created an English translation of the interview as well.
An interesting read from a bishop who tried to hear God as clearly as possible.
Photo credit: Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam
“In the silence I could hear His voice better and I tried to engage in conversation with Him. A few times I felt a sort of answer, nothing spectacular, no lightning bolts, but I felt He was with me. I submitted my questions and concerns to Him.”
He has remained fairly quiet about it, but Bishop Jos Punt spent most of February in a small cave in the Spanish wilderness, surviving on fruit, bread and cereal, keeping warm with army fatigues and a sleeping bag and losing 7 kilos in the process. Two weeks ago he returned to the daily affairs of his Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam. His original intention was to eat far less and return a week later, but fatigue and age (the bishop is 67) meant that that was perhaps too ambitious.
Bishop Punt has for years been perhaps the most visibly spiritually-minded of the Dutch bishops. His devotion to the Blessed Virgin, as well as the story of his return to the faith after a youth dabbling with esoteric movements and trends – coupled with a tendency to get somewhat too apocalyptic at times, in my opinion – , are no secrets. In that light, his decision to spend a month in a cave, far away from the chaos of modern society and the commitments of a diocesan bishop, should come as no surprise.
The search for God in the silence is not something for hermits and monastics alone. Since we are all called to find and follow God, it makes sense to go where He may most easily be found: in the silence, where noise and chaos will not overwhelm His voice, which is never forceful and never shouts to be heard.
Photo credit: Louis Runhaar/RKK
More than seven years after the publication of Summorum Pontificum, which ’freed up’ the use of the traditional form of the Mass, the so-called Extraordinary Form, as it was used for centuries before the liturgy changes of the Second Vatican Council, a milestone is reached for the Catholics in the Netherlands: for the first time a Dutch bishop will offer Mass in this form.
The date is next Sunday, 20 January, and the bishop in question is the retired auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam, Msgr. Jan van Burgsteden.
The FSSP-run church of St. Agnes in Amsterdam will be the location and shares the news on her website. This church is no stranger to EF Masses offered by bishops or higher clergy, as she has hosted Bishop Kozon of Copenhagen and Cardinal Burke in the past. Like the former, Bishop van Burgsteden will administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to ten faithful before the Mass.
According to the website linked above, the bishop is delighted to offer Mass in the form which was standard when he was ordained to the priesthood in 1964.
The Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam is perhaps the most welcoming Dutch diocese for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. The diocesan seminary offers training or seminarians and priests, and both the ordinary, Bishop Jos Punt, and the current auxiliary, Bishop Jan Hendriks, attended the Mass offered by Cardinal Burke in choir. Most recently, Bishop Punt announced that the church of St. Agnes will be the home of a personal parish run by the FSSP, which regularises church and priests in the diocese and gives the Extraordinary Form a solid place within the liturgical landscape of the Church in the Netherlands.
Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri (pictured), the secretary of the Congregation for Bishops, has announced that Pope Benedict XVI has completed his first cycle of ad limina visits by the world’s bishops. Although there is no set schedule by which bishops’ conferences come to Rome for the weeklong meetings with Pope and Curia, this year’s planned meetings with the Italian episcopate do mean a return to the start: the Italians were among the first to meet with Pope Benedict in 2006.
But this does leave us with one questions: what about the Dutch? Despite Archbishop Baldisseri’s announcement, the Dutch bishops have in fact not made their ad limina under the current papacy. Their last was in 2004, when Blessed John Paul II was still Pope.
Catholic News Service, who published the news today, have stated they have not yet been able to contact anyone at the Vatican about this, but will amend their report if and when they do.
In April of last year, I wrote about Bishop Jos Punt’s speculation that he and the other Dutch bishops would be travelling to Rome sometime in 2013. Perhaps the Holy See will be able to squeeze them in among the Italians, but Archbishop Baldisseri has said that the Italian ad limina, coupled with Year of Faith activities and the agendas of local bishops preclude any other ad limina visits this year. If true, and the Dutch bishops will have to wait until 2014, there will be an enormous ten-year gap between visits.
Edit: Following this blog’s noticing that the Dutch bishops were seemingly overlooked for an ad limina visit, Archbishop Baldisseri, after an enquery by the Catholic News Service, explained that his Congregation had been informed by the Prefecture of the Papal Household that the cycle of ad limina visits was complete. “But now it seems that with the Netherlands, something happened,” he said. A visit still seems to be scheduled for either later this year or early in 2014.
As accidentally announced on twitter yesterday, the news may now be revealed properly. Amsterdam’s “cathedral on the IJ” – the strikingly domed St. Nicholas church that greets visitors arriving in the nation’s capital as they exit the central train station – has been elevated to the status of basilica minor. The actual elevation is set for Vespers on the eve of 9 December, the day on which the festivities marking the 125th anniversary of the new basilica’s dedication will be rounded off. Archbishop André Dupuy, the apostolic nuncio will then read the official document in which the decision is outlined.
Haarlem-Amsterdam’s Bishop, Msgr. Jos Punt, together with the parish council of Amsterdam’s St. Nicholas parish, made the official request to the Congregation for Divine Worship in July. This congregation motivates her decision to grant the request with two arguments: the veneration of Saint Nicholas of Myra, patron saint of the city of Amsterdam; and the devotion to the Miracle of Amsterdam, which is still remembered annually by a night-time silent procession through the city’s heart.
Bishop Jan van Burgsteden, the retired auxiliary bishop of Haarlem-Amsterdam who is responsible for the pastoral care in the parish, said: “This is the witness of a inspirational and missionary parish community. We hope that the Church and community may grow and flourish further in the years to come.” He referred to the many volunteers who kept the St. Nicholas alive and thriving, even when secularisation forced the closure of many churches.
The elevation of the St. Nicholas raises the number of Dutch basilicas to 24, of which three are in the Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam. The Archdiocese of Utrecht has eight, the Diocese of Breda three, Roermond six, Rotterdam one, and ’s Hertogenbosch three. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the Diocese of Willemstad has one basilica.
The title of minor basilica is an honourific, a recognition of the import of a church building and of its value for the Catholic value using it. It also means that the church in question plays an exemplary role when it comes to pastoral care and liturgy.
“I am known as the ecumenical bishop, although some bloggers are none too happy about that. So be it.”
Words from Bishop Gerard de Korte in his homily on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. The festive Mass, offered by the bishop in concelebration with the diocesan vicars and the cathedral administrator, and attended by the majority of the diocesan clergy and the bishops Punt, Van den Hende and Woorts, as well as Cardinal Simonis, took place on Saturday morning. Bishop de Korte looked back on the past 25 years, but also ahead to the years that are coming.
Ecumenism is major theme for the bishop; it is, one could say, a defining characteristic. As an illustration, among the guests at the Mass were representatives of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and the Old Catholic Church, whom the bishop regards as “friends in the faith”. But this ecumenical focus has also caused some to look with wary eyes at his activities. And among these, there are some very vocal bloggers and users of other social media.
Bishop de Korte, quite possibly because of these wary - and often rather aggressive and personal - comments, has been rather critical about Catholic bloggers in the Netherlands. In the past he has written about the need for bloggers to remain charitable and be careful for what they commit to the screen, which, sadly, led to a renewed round of criticism and attacks, not only aimed at Bishop de Korte, but also at those who dared to express support, like yours truly. Accusations of slander were even leveled at me at one point. Just an illustration.
Regarding the above, Bishop de Korte’s apparent opinion of bloggers and users of social media, illustrated by the quote I shared above, can be explained. But it is sad that he has been given this impression. For not all bloggers are hostile to priests and bishops, even if they can, at times, be quite critical of their words and actions.
Should we then reply with a similar “so be it”? I don’t think so. Bloggers have things to say. Not to blow my own trumpet here, but let’s face it: you don’t start a blog and devote time to it, sometimes for many years, without having a thing or two to say. We should then look at how we communicate. If our way of communication causes people to ignore the message and even consider bloggers to be peripheral, we are doing something wrong.
Of course we should not simply be quiet when we disagree, but neither should we resort to personal attacks and name-calling. Any possibility of a quick resolution will go straight out the window in that case. I may personally regret that my bishop chooses to focus so much on ecumenism instead of a clear Catholic teaching in our secular society, but that does not mean I’ll denounce him as a heretic or worse, as some do.
Photo credit: Marlies Bosch/Bisdom Groningen-Leeuwarden
Deacon Jim Schilder
In the weeks around Pentecost there will once again be ordinations of new priests and one deacon in several dioceses in the Netherlands. This year’s tally stands at 10 for three dioceses and two religious congregations. All but one will be ordained in 2 June. The exception is Bart Beckers (47), who will be ordained for the Society of Jesus by Bishop Jan van Burgsteden, emeritus auxiliary, in the church of St. Francis Xavier in Amsterdam, the first time that church sees a priestly ordination.
In that same Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam, on 2 June, Bishop Jos Punt will ordain Deacons Peter Piets (44) and Jim Schilder (55), who will be diocesan priests, and Theo van Adrichem (57), who will be a transitional deacon for the Franciscans.
In the Diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch, Bishop Antoon Hurkmans will ordain Deacons Patrick Kuis (27) and Geoffrey de Jong (31).
In the Diocese of Roermond, Bishop Frans Wiertz will ordain Deacons Rick Blom (30), George Dölle (52), Jan Geilen (54) and Patrick Zuidinga (40).
All ordinations, except that of Bart Beckers, will take place in the cathedrals of the respective dioceses. God willing, I’ll be at the ordinations in ‘s Hertogenbosch. Expect some photos here afterwards.
Photo credit: IKON
In a interview for Catholic radio, Bishop Jos Punt of Haarlem-Amsterdam expressed his expectation that the Dutch bishops will be travelling to Rome for their ad limina visit sometime in 2013. Their previous visit took place in March of 2004.
The Dutch bishops during their last Ad limina visit in 2004
Bishop Punt said so in a conversation about the physical wellbeing of Pope Benedict XVI and the possibility that he would resign for health reasons. The bishops said that it is theoretically possible for a pope to resign at some point, but stressed that, while the Holy Father is undoubtedly getting older, his mind is as sharp as ever. Bishop Punt also said that he enjoys meeting and conversing with Pope Benedict, and is grateful for this pontificate.
Originally, the ad limina visit, during which the bishops meet not only with the pope, but also with all the important dicasteries of the Church, would take place sometime this year, but recent changes in how such visits are conducted have likely pushed it back somewhat.
The Dutch episcopate has not yet visited Rome during the pontificate of Benedict XVI.
Photo credit: RKK
