The Dutch bishops got something special in their mail today: a black book documenting the “offensive statements and hurtful actions” of Bishop Robert Mutsaerts. The author? Father Jan Peijnenburg, the priest who was removed from active ministry last year after it became known that he had been living with his lover for the past 46 years, breaking his oath of celibacy and now his oath of obedience to his bishop.
It is a sad affair, really. and the only response it merits is one of pity. Father Peijnenburg broke his oaths and tried to be a priest without living a celibate life; an impossibility, and he knew it full well. The fact that he got away with it for 46 years is immaterial. The Church asks her priests to live celibate lives. That is not something that Bishop Mutsaerts suddenly came up with. He is merely the bishop who finally acts against those priests who do not follow the rules they agreed to follow. And that, I suppose, makes him the bad guy.
The other bishops will take note of black book and that will be all. All we can hope and pray for is that Fr. Peijnenburg will see the error of his ways, and that he will receive the help he needs in doing so.
Accompanying the black book is a ‘white book’ with ‘renewing thoughts’: no doubt the same unoriginal thought that has affected the Church in this country under the misunderstood banner of ‘the spirit of Vatican II’ for the past decades.
February was the month of 
In May we saw and read about 
August was a big month because of 
In November, Cardinal Burke 
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.
As the story of 
Another problem, which has been confirmed by people with knowledge about canon and secular law, is Fr. Peijnenburg’s claim that the right to marry trumps the freedom of religion. No one in the Catholic Church is forced to be or remain a practicising Catholic. It is a free choice, and one’s faith is lived in full freedom. In fact, lack of freedom can be a serious obstacle! If, for example, someone is married without freely wanting to, the subsequent marriage can be declared null. That as an example. If Fr. Peijnenburg now claims that the Church can’t keep him from getting married or even having a romantic relationship, he is in the wrong. He himself, by saying ‘yes’ to his bishop and by his ordination, promised to be faithful to what the Church teaches. And that Church teaches that priests must live celibate. That is no new rule, and one that Fr. Peijnenburg was certainly aware of. He simply does not agree with it, and considers that reason enough to consider his promises regarding that empty.
The priest, Father Jan Peijnenburg (who is not the emeritus archivist of the diocese, who has the same name), is 81 years old and has been living with his female friend for the past 46 years. Both are pictured to the left. Newspapers make of this friend his girlfriend, which would seem likely, because Fr. Peijnenburg is also the author of several recent leaflets in which he agitates against priestly celibacy, leaflets which he mailed to numerous people, the diocese claims.
In Caelo et in Terra 