Catholic Church in the Netherlands

The Catholic Church in the Netherlands (Dutch: Rooms-katholiek kerkgenootschap in Nederland) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Its primate is the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht, currently Willem Jacobus Eijk since 2008. In 2015 Catholicism was the single largest religion of the Netherlands.[1] forming some 23%[2][3] of the Dutch people, based on in-depth interviewing, down from 40% in the 1960s.


Catholic Church in the Netherlands
TypeNational polity
ClassificationCatholic
GovernanceEpiscopal
PopePope Francis
PresidentBishop Hans van den Hende
PrimateArchbishop Wim Eijk
Apostolic NuncioAldo Cavalli
RegionNetherlands
LanguageDutch, Latin
HeadquartersSt Catherine's Cathedral, Utrecht
SeparationsMennonites (1540)
Dutch Reformed Church (1571)
Old Catholic Church (1724)
Members3,785,000
Official websiteEpiscopal Conference of the Netherlands

Although the number of Catholics in the Netherlands has decreased significantly in recent decades, the Catholic Church remains today the largest religious group in the Netherlands. Once known as a Protestant country, Catholicism surpassed Protestantism after the First World War, and in 2012 the Netherlands was only 10% Dutch Protestant (down from 60% in the early 20th century; defections are primarily due to rising lack of affiliation that started to occur two decades earlier than in Dutch Catholicism).[4] There are an estimated 3.882 million Catholics registered (2015) by the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, 22.9% of the population[5] down from more than 40% in the 1970s. The Catholic Church in the Netherlands has suffered an official membership loss of 650,000 members between 2003 (4,532,000 pers. / 27.9% overall population) and 2015 (3,882,000 pers. / 22.9% overall population),[6] The number of people registered as Catholic in the Netherlands continues to decrease, roughly by half a percent annually.

North Brabant and Limburg have been historically the most Catholic parts of the Netherlands, and Catholicism and some of its traditions now form a cultural identity rather than a religious identity for people there. The vast majority of the Catholic population is now largely irreligious in practice (in line with the rest of the Dutch population). Research among self-identified Catholics in the Netherlands in 2007 showed that only 27% could be regarded as theist; 55% as ietsist, deist, or agnostic; and 17% as atheist.[7] In 2015 only 13% of self-identified Dutch Catholics believe in the existence of heaven, 17% in a personal God and fewer than half believe that Jesus was the Son of God or sent by God.[8]

Sunday church attendance by Catholics has decreased in recent decades to less than 200,000 or 1.2% of the Dutch population in 2006.[9] More recent numbers for Sunday church attendance have not been published (with the exception of the Diocese of Roermond), although press releases have mentioned a further decline since 2006.

In December 2011 a report was published by Wim Deetman, a former Dutch Minister of Education, detailing widespread child abuse within the Catholic Church in the Netherlands: 1,800 instances of abuse "by clergy or volunteers within Dutch Catholic dioceses" were reported to have occurred since 1945.[10]

A planned visit of Pope Francis to the Netherlands was blocked by cardinal Wim Eijk in 2014, allegedly because of the feared lack of interest for the Pope among the Dutch public.[11]

History

Medieval period
St. Willibrord, Apostle of the Frisians and part of the Anglo-Saxon mission. He was the first Bishop of Utrecht.

From the 4th to the 6th century AD The Great Migration took place, in which the small Celtic-Germanic-Roman tribes in the Low Countries were gradually supplanted by three major Germanic tribes: the Franks, the Frisians and Saxons.

The most powerful of these were the Franks (who, at the time, resided between the Rhine and the Somme) and they converted to Catholic Christianity, during the reign of King Clovis I around 500 AD. Most of the region thus fell under the Frankish Kingdom and then the Carolingian Empire until the end of the 9th century. From the center of the Diocese of Tongeren-Maastricht-Liège, successively the cities of Tongeren, Maastricht and Liège, this part of the Low Countries was probably Christianized. According to tradition, the first Bishop of Maastricht, Servatius, was buried in this city in 384, though only from Bishop Domitianus (ca. 535) is it established that he resided in Maastricht.

The coastal Frisian Kingdom remained Germanic pagan but were eventually conquered by Charles Martel and incorporated into the Catholic Frankish Kingdom after the Battle of the Boarn in 734. The Northern parts of the Netherlands were converted as part of the Anglo-Saxon mission as Catholic Christians from the various kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England moved to the Continent, such as St. Willibrord, the Apostle of the Frisians and St. Boniface, who was martyred in Friesland. Both were active in the eighth century, having great impact on the conversion of the country. The areas in the Low Countries which would eventually become part of the modern Netherlands were part of Middle Francia and then Lotharingia, before eventually becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation as part of the Burgundian Netherlands. Originally under the House of Valois-Burgundy by the end of the 15th century it was part of the Habsburg Netherlands as part of a vast Catholic Habsburg Empire dominated by the Kingdom of Spain.

Since the rise of Calvinism
Pope Adrian VI, to date the only Dutchman to reign as Pope. He held the Papacy from 9 January 1522 until his death on 14 September 1523.

Since the War of Independence the Catholics were systematically and officially discriminated against by the Protestant government until the second half of the 20th century, which had a major influence on the economical and cultural development of the southern part of the Netherlands. From the Reformation to the 20th century, Dutch Catholics had largely been confined to certain southern areas in the Netherlands where they still tend to form a majority or large minority of the population. However, with modern population shifts and increasing secularization, these areas tend to be less and less predominantly Catholic. Registered Catholics still form a slight majority in the most southern province of the Netherlands, Limburg (refer to the overview by diocese above).

After the Dutch Republic banned the Catholic religion in the 1580s the Netherlands became a mission territory under the canonical authority of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (the so-called Dutch Mission). The episcopal hierarchy was not restored until 1853.[12]

Restoration of Catholic hierarchy
Religion in the Netherlands in 1849. Catholic-majority areas in green.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Catholics formed a separate social pillar, with their own schools, TV and radio broadcasting, hospitals, unions, and political party. They formed a coalition with orthodox Protestants, who also felt discriminated against. This pillarization and coalition government was important in emancipating the Catholics from their social exclusion. In the period between 1860 and 1960, Catholic church life and institutions flourished. This period is called "The Rich Roman Life" (Dutch: Het Rijke Roomse leven). During this period, the number of Catholics in the Dutch population grew to approximate parity with Protestants, as in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, and Germany.

Since the Second Vatican Council

After 1970, the emphasis on Catholic concepts and traditions such as hell, the Devil, sin, Confession, kneeling, catechesis, having the Host placed on the tongue by the priest, and the doctrine about widows' remarrying, divorce, and premarital sex rapidly disappeared; these concepts and traditions are rarely, if ever, found in modern Dutch Catholicism. A cultural divide is still found between the "Catholic" south and the "Protestant" north, but with a total of 1.5 million people and 20% of the industrial production in the Netherlands, the southern "Catholic" area BrabantStad has become one of the major economically important, metropolitan regions of the Netherlands.

In the 1980s and 1990s the church became polarized. The conservatives' main organization was Contact Roman Catholics. The liberals' main organization was the Eighth of May Movement (Dutch: "Acht Mei-beweging"), founded because of disputes about the papal visit in 1985; the Movement had a difficult relationship with the bishops, and disbanded in 2003.

Currently, Catholicism is still the single largest religion of the Netherlands with around four million registered members, 22.9% of the Dutch population in 2015.[13][14] In 2006, in the Diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch (in the eastern part of North Brabant and in part of Gelderland), only 45,645 residents, mostly people over 65, attended Mass, only 2% of the total population in that area. In western North Brabant (the Diocese of Breda), the number of people associating themselves with Catholicism also strongly decreased. Church attendance is even lower in the west with only 1% of the West Brabantian population visiting churches in 2006.[15]

Most Catholics live in the southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg, where they used to comprise a majority of the population until at least the late 1980s. According to the church administration in 2010, two dioceses, s-Hertogenbosch and Roermond, still had a Catholic majority; it is notable that in 2005, SILA (Stichting Interkerkelijke Ledenadministratie) listed a significantly lower number of Catholics in these two dioceses. This shows a big disconnect between membership and actual adherence.

Child abuse scandal

In December 2011 a report was published by Wim Deetman, a former Dutch minister, detailing widespread child abuse within the Catholic Church in the Netherlands: 1,800 instances of abuse "by clergy or volunteers within Dutch Catholic dioceses" were reported to have occurred since 1945.[10] According to the report "The risk of experiencing unwanted sexual advances was twice as great for minors in institutions as the national average of 9.7%. This finding reveals no significant difference between Catholic institutions and other institutions."[16] In March 2012, however, it was revealed that left out were the cases of 10 children being surgically castrated after reporting being sexually abused to the police.[10] It also emerged that in 1956 former prime minister Victor Marijnen, then chairman of a children's home in Gelderland, had covered up the sexual abuse of children. According to the Telegraph newspaper, he "intervened to have prison sentences dropped against several priests convicted of abusing children."[10] The factuality of these claims is unclear, though. The Commission rejected all the claims.[17]

Structure

Within the Netherlands the hierarchy consists of:

  • Archbishopric
    • Bishopric

Dioceses
year population Catholics (based on registration by the church itself) Percentage (based on registration by the church itself)
197012,957,6215,320,00040.5
198014,091,0145,620,00039.5
199014,892,5745,560,00037.0
200015,863,9505,060,41331.6
201016,574,9894,166,00025.0
201516,900,7263,882,00022.9
201616,979,1203,832,00022.4
201717,081,0573,769,00021.9
201817,181,0843,711,00021.5
201917,282,163[18]3,785,000[19][20]21.7
Overview of Dutch dioceses

There are seven dioceses in the Netherlands.

For more demographic details by diocese, see the List of Catholic dioceses in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

These figures are the latest available as of Dec 31, 2010 from ecclesiastical statistics.[21]

Number of registered people per diocese and church attendance (Dec 2010)
DioceseRegistered as Catholic in the populationSunday Catholic church attendance in the general population (at least once a month)
(registered by church as member)(percentage)(people attending church)(percentage)
Groningen-Leeuwarden± 107,0005.9%6,9000.4%
Utrecht± 754,00018.8%31,7000.8%
Haarlem-Amsterdam± 465,00016.1%24,3000.8%
Rotterdam ± 513,00014.2%25,8000.7%
Breda± 437,00039.1%12,3001.1%
's-Hertogenbosch± 1,125,00053.9%38,9001.9%
Roermond± 765,00068.1%32,8002.9%
Netherlands in total± 4,166,00025.0%172,7001.0%

According to the church administration, in 2010 two dioceses – 's-Hertogenbosch and Roermond – still had a majority of Catholics in the population. It is notable that SILA (Stichting Interkerkelijke Ledenadministratie) published precisely for these two dioceses a significantly lower number of Catholics in 2005. Based on the SILA-numbers, in the diocese of Hertogenbosch in 2010 the population has no longer a Catholic majority. KASKI (Katholiek Sociaal-Kerkelijk Insituut / Catholic Social-Ecclesiastical Institute[22]) found 23.3% of the population to be nominal Catholic in 2014,[23] based on registration by the Catholic church.[24] These numbers are significantly higher than the numbers of Catholic adherence found by Radboud University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (11.7% Catholic in 2015).[25] This shows a big disconnect between membership and actual adherence. Especially the Catholic Church often claims that a quarter of the Dutch population is Catholic, pointing to the official statistics, but when questioned, fewer than half that number associate themselves with the Catholic faith. A lot of people still registered as members of a church are actually not religious (anymore), but for various reasons have not officially renounced their membership (yet) – a phenomenon known as 'belonging without believing'.[26]

Estimated number of Catholic sacraments and ecclesiastical rituals in the Netherlands (2003-2019)[27]
YearInfant baptismsCommunionsConfirmationsConversionsWeddingsFunerals
200337,06540,43529,3858057,70038,130
200533,00037,90527,1757356,60034,285
201023,84032,41021,2207603,86528,630
201514,03019,87012,6605401,91021,880
201612,47017,85011,4104501,72021,100
201711,59016,6209,9004801,51019,890
201810,38015,1109,0204301,29018,970
20199,13013,5107,8604501,10517,580
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According to the Church's figures, Catholics became a minority in the Diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch in 2014. The number of parishes in the Netherlands has dropped between 2003 and 2014 from 1525 to 760.[28]

Churches and Parishes in the Netherlands[28]
YearNumber of ChurchesNumber of Parishes
200317821525
200517401442
201016291139
20151513726
20161484700
20171464690
20181384686
20191352666


Many remaining churches have found purposes outside the religious domain, like stores, apartment buildings and museums.

  Catholic membership according to the Catholic Church registration[29]
  Catholic adherence according to indepth interviewing[30]

Notable Dutch Catholics

Notable Dutch Catholics throughout history include Pope Adrian VI, Ruud Lubbers, Henry of Gorkum, Hadewijch, Cornelius Loos, Jakob Middendorp, Hieronymus Bosch, Piet de Jong, Jan Harmenszoon Krul, Dries van Agt, Jan Steen, Casimir Ubaghs, Maxime Verhagen, Erasmus, and Joan Albert Ban.

See also

References
  1. Heneghan, Tom (2013-12-03). "Dutch bishops give Pope Francis a bleak picture of Catholic Church in decline". Reuters Blogs. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  2. Schmeets, Hans (2016). De religieuze kaart van Nederland, 2010–2015 (PDF). Centraal Bureau voor der Statistiek. p. 5.
  3. CBS. "Helft Nederlanders is kerkelijk of religieus". www.cbs.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  4. "Kerncijfers 2012".
  5. KASKI-Report 636 ), retrieved 9 Jan 2015
  6. "Cijfers Rooms-Katholieke Kerk".
  7. God in Nederland' (1996-2006), by Ronald Meester, G. Dekker, ISBN 9789025957407
  8. "Hoe God (bijna) verdween uit Nederland". NOS. 13 March 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  9. "KASKI – the official Dutch Catholic statistics source". Archived from the original on 2006-04-19. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
  10. "Dutch Roman Catholic Church 'castrated at least 10 boys'". Telegraph. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
  11. "Kardinaal Eijk blokkeert bezoek paus Franciscus". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  12. Sunier, Thijl Houses of worship and politics of space in Amsterdam in Ethnic Amsterdam: Immigrants and Urban Change in the Twentieth Century, Solidarity and identity edited by Nell, Liza, Rath, Jan, 2009, Amsterdam university press, page 170
  13. Heneghan, By Tom. "Dutch bishops give Pope Francis a bleak picture of Catholic Church in decline".
  14. "Kerkelijke gezindte en kerkbezoek; vanaf 1849; 18 jaar of ouder". 15 October 2010.
  15. Kerncijfers 2006 uit de kerkelijke statistiek van het Rooms-Katholiek Kerkgenootschap in Nederland, Rapport nr. 561 oktober 2007, Jolanda Massaar- Remmerswaal dr. Ton Bernts, KASKI, onderzoek en advies over religie en samenleving
  16. "Voormalig onderzoek RK - Archief website" (PDF). www.onderzoekrk.nl. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  17. "Voormalig onderzoek RK - Archief website" (PDF). www.onderzoekrk.nl. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  18. "Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek StatLine - Population; key figures".
  19. "SILA (Stichting Interkerkelijke Ledenadministratie)".
  20. http://www.ru.nl/kaski/onderzoek/cijfers-rooms/virtuele_map/katholieken
  21. "Overzicht onderzoeksvormen".
  22. "Kaski: Onderzoekscentrum religie en samenleving". KASKI. Radboud Universiteit.
  23. "Overzicht onderzoeksvormen". KASKI. Radboud Universiteit.
  24. "Cijfers overige kerkgenootschappen". KASKI. Radboud Universiteit.
  25. Bernts, Tom; Berghuijs, Joantine (2016). God in Nederland 1966-2015. Ten Have. ISBN 9789025905248.
  26. "Netherlands: 50% officially not religious". European Skeptics. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  27. "Sacramenten en kerkelijke rituelen".
  28. "Kerkgebouwen en parochies".
  29. KASKI-Report ), retrieved 26 Sep 2017
  30. Bernts, Tom; Berghuijs, Joantine (2016). God in Nederland 1966-2015. Ten Have. ISBN 9789025905248
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