It’s the border between farmland and dunes dottes with holiday homes, but it will be the location of a small Cistercian monastery. The mayor and executive board are all for it, but the municipal council will also need to agree. But the signs are good, and the monks on Schiermonnikoog seem to have found their new home.
Four monks from the former Sion Abbey are currently residing on the island of Schiermonnikoog, off the northern Dutch coast, in a residential home they are renting. Ever since their arrival, a result of their decision to leave too-large abbey, the monks have been looking for a location to establish their monastery on the island. It will be a small religious house, but with the hope that it may be the start of something bigger. A hope that is recognised and shared by Bishop Gerard de Korte, in whose diocese the monks now reside. He has repeatedly identified the presence of the monks on Schiermonnikoog as one of the seeds of spiritual renewal in the diocese, together with the shrine of Our Lady of the Garden Enclosed in Warfhuizen and the community of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Heerenveen, which is in the process of growing from two to four members.
^On 26 January, Abbot Alberic and Brother Paulus introduced themselves to the 27 pupils of the local secondary school. This was one of several introductions to the inhabitants of Schiermonnikoog.
The future monastery on Schiermonnikoog will be in a unique position. As a Cistercian house it will be a home of silence and prayer, but located in a world of farming, tourism and nature. Schiermonnikoog is small, its sole village surrounded by a national park, and soon with a monastery on the border between the two.
Photo credit: Simon van der Zee
Surprising and inspiring news yesterday, when the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden announced that it would entrust the parish of Saints Peter and Paul in south-central Friesland, which includes the city of Heerenveen, to the Holy Ghost Fathers. Three priests from this religious congregation will take care of the pastoral needs of the faithful there, with the first, Father Charles Eba’a C.S.Sp, arriving to succeed Father Anton de Vries as parish priest. The latter is currently recovering from heart surgery and retiring on age and health grounds. Fr. Eba’a, 43, will be joined on short notice by 70-year-old Father Leo Gottenbos C.SS.Sp. A third Holy Ghost Father, possibly also of African decent, will arrive in 2016, although no one has been named yet.
Fr. Charles Eba’a, pictured at right, originally comes from Cameroon and has worked in parishes in the Diocese of Rotterdam for the past ten years, most recently as parish priest in the parish federation of St. Mary Magdalen in the Southern part of the city of Rotterdam and adjacent towns. Fr. Leo Gottenbos returned in September from 40 years’ ministry in Brazil.
The Cistercesian monks of Sion Abbey, who have been scouting possibilities of relocating their monastic home to the island of Schiermonnikoog, have found a first place to call home, if a temporary one. Through the offices of a Belgian sponsor, the monks were able to purchase a house in the sole village on the island, a house which was until recently used a hairdresser’s shop and home. The house is situated on the east-west axis of the village, on the edge of the historic village heart and a newer postwar area, and will be used by two monks from May onwards.
There have been many interesting things going in locally, some positive, some negative, but together they reflect the life of the Catholic Church in this country. From Roermond, the case of Bishop Frans Schraven, a martyr for the faith in China, 
closing of their local Church 
The archbishop of Utrecht remains unenviable as he continues in his work as president of the Bishops’ Conference, member of the Curia in Rome, and all too often a scapegoat. This year, he made headlines when 
By the end of summer, a debate erupted about 
The world remains interested in Pope Francis, and it was no different in this blog. First up, there was his 
Pope also sent 
unfounded later. Pope Francis 
There has been a fair amount of new appointments in 2014, and especially in Germany. First Fr. 
appointed as the new 
While there were no new bishops in the Netherlands, 
The big topic in the second half of the year was the Synod of Bishops’ Extraordinary Assembly on the family. In the eyes of the rest of the world, Germany remains a focal point of liberal trends that are at odds with Catholic teaching. That is not always true, but some bishops did strengthen that opinion. Bishop Ackermann of Trier was the first to be criticised for his 
Brazil. In Belgium, Bishop Johan Bonny (at left)was the loudest voice to 
Spilling over from last year, the final acts of the case of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst (at right) and the Diocese of Limburg played out as it became clear that the Vatican did not want the bishop to stay. 
The sexual abuse crisis, while quieter than in the past, still continues, with a few shocking revelations and continuing developments in helping the victims. In 2014, three claims of abuse against the late Bishop Gijsen (at left) were 
This blog has a clear focus on the local Church in Northwestern Europe, and also on Rome of course, but sometimes events in other parts of the world deserve a place here. In fact, the most-read blog post of the year, with more than 3,900 views, is in this category. It is the sad news of 
that of Dutch-born 
And lastly, Rome also had its say in various developments and decisions which came down to us. The Congregation or Divine Worship urged for 
The Trappist monks of Sion Abbey in Diepenveen, north of Deventer in the Archdiocese of Utrecht, are abandoning their abbey. Built in 1883 for a community of more than 100 monks, has become too big, housing only 12 Cistercian monks of the Strict Observance, Trappists for short. Maintenance costs for the buildings have become too high for the small community and, as Abbot Alberic Bruschke says, sharing it with other users is not possible, since it wouldn’t be a monastery any longer.
The exact location and shape of the new foundation on the island is not yet known, but the choice of Schiermonnikoog is not random. In the local old dialect, the name of the island means ‘Island of the grey monks’, referring to the Cistercian monks who had come from the Claercamp monastery in Frisia. In the Middle Ages they established a grange on the island and were responsible for much of the early reclamation of land from the ever-shifting sand flats and sea to the south, between island and mainland. In 1580 that ended, as the Reformation took all possessions from the monastery, including Schiermonnikoog. But the monastic history of the island has always been recognised, and in 1961 a statue of a monk (pictured at right) was placed in the island’s only village.
^Schiermonnikoog from the air, seen from the south west. Apart from the village, the entire island is a national park. It is some 18 kilometers in length and forever moves slowly eastward.
In Caelo et in Terra 