Meetings in Rome, and some thoughts about blogging bishops

The Netherlands is a fairly small country, and the Catholic Church in this country is, relatively speaking, even smaller. So when a Dutch bishop or two visit Rome and meet with the Pope, it is interesting enough to mention here. But that’s not the only reason, of course…

This week, Bishops Jan Hendriks and Theodorus Hoogenboom visited the Eternal City to discuss the plight of diocesan religious institutes who no longer have enough members to supply their own superior, economist or council members. For that purpose they met with the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Bishop Hendriks writes about the visit on his personal website.

Bishop Hendriks also attended Wednesday’s General Audience (where the photo above was taken) and shares an anecdote about a meeting with a Nigerian cardinal:

“Among others, I spoke with Cardinal John Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja in Nigeria, who was in Rome for a congress on the meaning and the role of women, with participants from various world religions. He had been well acquainted with the former bishop of Haarlem, Msgr. Hennie Bomers CM, who died suddenly in 1998, shortly after a visit to Nigeria where he had ordained fellow Lazarist brothers. The cardinal had good memories of the bishop’s house in Haarlem, where he had stayed in the past. I didn’t tell him we are busy selling the building…”

Bishop Hendriks is the sole blogging bishop in the Netherlands (although several other bishops regularly contribute articles and texts to various media and their diocese’s websites), and I think his is an example that deserves more following. It is good to know what our bishops are doing, to counter the unwanted image of secrecy that, in my opinion, the bishops’ conference still has. We know they meet monthly, but what they discuss remains a secret. I’m not suggesting we should all receive detailed reports of their discussions (Bishop Hendriks also supplies none, but he does explain what the meeting in Rome was about), but more openness, certainly in the personal medium of a blog or piece on a website, could help making us faithful feel more involved in their daily affairs and more understanding when difficult decisions need to be made, such as in cases of parish mergers and church closings.

Of course, a blog is not for everyone. Neither is a social media presence. But generally speaking, there is still so much to gain in the new media for our bishops. The Internet has penetrated in every layer of society and few are the people who never come into contact with it. More and more people get their news from the web first, and opinion is everywhere. As the chief shepherds of our local Church and the visible representatives of the world wide Church that they are, the bishops must also be there. Blog posts, the personal element of a social media presence, can be a great asset in that.

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Martyr for the faith, Bishop Schraven’s case headed to Rome

In the Diocese of Roermond today, Bishop Frans Wiertz officially closed the diocesan phase of the case of Limburg-born Bishop Frans Schraven. The paperwork, documenting the bishop’s life and the reasons for a possible future beatification, is now to be sent to Rome, where the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will eventually present it to Pope Francis, who has the final say about what will happen next. The file includes the proposal to declare Bishop Schraven a martyr, which negates the need for a miracle before his beatification.

Franciscus Hubertus Schraven was born in Lottum, Diocese of Roermond, in 1873. At the age of 21 he joined the Congregation of the Mission, in which he was ordained a deacon (1898) and a priest (1899). In that year he departed Marseille for China, and in 1920 he was appointed as Vicar Apostolic of Southwestern Chi-Li in China, and consecrated bishop with the titular see of Amyclae. He led the community which is now the Diocese of Zhengding until 1937, when he died at the hands of Japanese troops engaged in the lengthy war with China that led into the Second World War in Asia.

On 9 October 1937 the Japanese conquered the city of Zhengding where Bishop Schraven was responsible for the protection of some 4,000 refugees, mostly women and children. As the soldiers plundered the city and killed and raped at will. At length, the Japanese authorities demanded that Bishop Schraven hand over some women to fill the soldiers’ need for “comfort”, in other words, to serve as sex slaves. The bishop refused. In the evening of the day that the city fell, Bishop Schraven and nine priests were arrested and deported by truck. It took until 1973 before their fate was discovered: they had been burnt alive on a pyre…

In his homily today, Bishop Wiertz spoke the following words about Bishop Schraven:

“Someone who found out firsthand what it means to follow Jesus, is Monsignor Schraven, for whom we are gathered today. Because of his refusal to supply comfort girls, he chose in favour of  a human existence for some one Thousand women. He chose against seeing women as objects, as commodities. With that he also chose for a literal following of Jesus.

When Bishop Schraven met with the Japanese soldiers, he must have realised what the risks of his position were. He literally told the commander, “You may kill me if you want, but giving you what you want, never!” A courageous attitude, which fits completely with what he wrote earlier that year to his family here in Limburg: “Essential is that we are ready when God calls us”.

[…]

Sometimes it becomes clear that – surprisingly enough – different times have the exact same needs. Bishop Schraven resisted sexual abuse of women. In many places in the world this sort of abuse still takes place. As Church, as faithful people, it is our task to resist that in the name of Jesus.

In recent years there has been much to do about abuse by people of the Church herself. It was shameful to find that faithful were guilty of something like that. Bishop Schraven shows us that in the Church there have also Always been people who chose the good side, who condemned abuse and even gave their own lives if need be. In Monsignor Schraven we have an example of someone who radically stood up for the protection of girls and women from sexual violence.

Where we are able to support efforts who aim to do the same, we, as Church,  can’t fail to do so. We are obliged to do so in Jesus’ Holy Name. Hopefully we are soon able to invoke the intercession of Blessed Bishop Schraven, who gave his own life in imitation of Jesus in the fight against the abuse of people.”

Episcopal highlights of November 2013

10 November: Bishop Theodorus van Ruyven (pictured) retires as Vicar Apostolic of Nekemte. The Dutch-born bishop of the Congregation of the Mission first became prefect of the Apostolic Prefecture of Jimma-Bingo (since elevated to an Apostolic Vicariate) in Ethiopia in 1998. In 2009 he was appointed is Vicar Apostolic of Nekemte, and with that appointment came an ordination as bishop. His titular see is Utimma. Earlier this year he co-consecrated his eventual successor, Bishop Varghese Thottamkara, as Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic.

11 November: Domenico Cardinal Bartolucci passes away. The highly respected retired director of the Sistine Chapel choir passed away at the age of 96. Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal in 2010, because of the work he had done for liturgical music in a career that spans as far back as the late 1940s. In addition to conducting and leading various choirs, Cardinal Bartolucci was also a composer. His funeral Mass was offered by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, with Pope Francis offering the final commendation. The Mass may be viewed here. There are now 200 cardinals, with 109 of them being electors

19 November: Bishop Joseph Lescrauwaet passes away.

21 November: Bishop Rainer Klug (pictured) retires as Auxiliary Bishop of Freiburg im Breisgau, a function he held since 2000. His retirement was granted less than a month before his 75th birthday, and comes shortly after the retirement of Freiburg’s Archbishop Zollitsch. He was a member of the commissions for liturgical questions and for discernment and education in the German Bishops’s Conference.

28 November: Bishop Max Georg von Twickel passes away at the age of 87. He was auxiliary bishop of Münster and titular bishop of Lugura. Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers, an auxiliary of the same diocese, remembers him for his sharp analytical mind and his sense of humour. Bishop Felix Genn, the ordinary, also adds his memory competence and highly developed theological knowledge. Bishop Von Twickel had been a priest of Münster from 1952 to 1973, when he was appointed as auxiliary bishop, a function he held until his retirement in 2001.