A look at the proposed new parishes in the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden after the mergers and reorganisations, as presented today by Bishop Gerard de Korte. It’s a bold plan, which aims to cut back the number of parishes from 81 to a mere 19. The reasons are multiple, including both financial and pastoral concerns. The reorganisation is set to be completed by 1 January 2018.
As a resident of this diocese, the plan also affects me and those in the parish where I live and attend Masses (which are, incidentally, not the same). I am therefore quite glad that the parish of St. Martin in Groningen (number 10 on the map), which includes the cathedral, remains unchanged. In a cartographical oddity, though, the southern suburbs of the city remain split off as they are today, but will be merged with the parishes in Haren and Zuidhorn – all parishes which today lack priests.
Other interesting plans include the merger of the parishes of Dokkum and Bergum with the island parishes of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog (3 on the map); the large and, as far as Catholics are concerned, empty quarters of Drenthe (14 and 16); and the parish along the German border (19), traditionally Catholic because of the Catholic peat workers moving there in the 19th century.
The new parishes, which the bishop says will be “learning, diaconal communities working out of the Eucharist”, may often be big, it will once more allow each parish to actual have its own resident priest. Hopefully this’ll mean the start of a turnaround away from the too-ubiquitous “Word & Communion services” that take place every Sunday throughout the diocese.
As a leak in the official embargo of the news virtually established as fact yesterday, the Diocese of Breda announced the name of its new bishop at noon today. He is Msgr. Jan Liesen, currently one of the two 
As Utrecht’s archbishop, Msgr. Simonis was the principal host of Blessed Pope John Paul II during his cold reception in the Netherlands in 1985. Because of the hostility of many Dutch Catholics towards the bishops and especially Rome, personified in the pope, Archbishop Simonis was put under police protection for ten days. His elevation to the College of Cardinals in the consistory of 25 May 1985 is often seen as a way to strengthen the archbishop in his difficult position.
The paths of the cardinal and I have crossed several times, although we never formally met. As chief celebrant at the Catholic Youth Day of, I think, 2007, during the installation of Bishop de Korte, and most recently in Spain during the World Youth Days, a constant was the cardinal’s health. In the years immediately following his retirement, his figure turned ever more stooped, but that seems to have reversed itself in later years. The quiet life seems to have done Cardinal Simonis good.
In Caelo et in Terra 