Full century – in Ambon, Bishop Sol passes away

Yesterday, the eve of his 100th Easter, Bishop André Sol, the sixth-oldest bishop in the world and the oldest Dutch bishop, returned to the Father.

Bishop Andreas Petrus Cornelius Sol was the last surviving Dutch-born prelate to have participated in the Second Vatican Council, taking part in the third and fourth sessions. A priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, he was ordained in 1940, travelling, after the war ended in 1945, to the Catholic Kai Islands in the Moluccas in what was then the Dutch East Indies. In 1963 he was appointed as Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Amboina, and in 1965 he succeeded Bishop Jacobus Grent, also a Dutchman, as the second bishop of that diocese. Bishop Sol retired in 1994.

Bishop Sol remained in Ambon after his retirement. In 2004 he had to flee sectarian violence in the city, but he returned later and died yesterday in the city that became his home. He leaves behind an extensive library attached to the cathedral of Amboina, as well as the Ambon Adoption Project, which has allowed thousands of children in the Mollucas to receive an education through sponsorships from financial adoption parents in the Netherlands since its inception in 1980.

Happy birthday to Bishop Sol

Happy birthday to Bishop Andreas Peter Cornelius Sol, who today marks his 98th birthday.

Bishop Sol was born in Sloten, in the Diocese of Haarlem, and became a priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He became Coadjutor Bishop and later Bishop of Amboina in Indonesia. He retired in 1994.

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