On 2 December 2013, the Pontifical Council for the Laity were visited by a group of Dutch bishops who were in Rome for their ad limina apostolorum visit.
In their conversation with our Council, the bishops briefly outlined the situation of the Church in the Netherlands. They spoke of issues that fall under the purview of our dicastery which are the laity, youth and ecclesial movements and new communities. The bishops presented, with obvious pain, the difficult challenges being addressed by their churches. They are all feeling the repercussions of the economic crisis in their country, and the financial budgets of their dioceses have been effected. To this must be added the decline in vocations for the priesthood and the resulting lack of personnel for the management of parishes. Other challenges are the unstoppable process of secularisation of Dutch society, the growing disinterest of the younger generation in the things of God and the aging of the Christian communities with no generational replacement. All of this has led to a drop in the number of Catholics present. Within the space of a few decades, the proportion of Catholics has dropped by 17%, with a rate of attendance at Sunday Mass standing at 5%. The convergence of these factors has led to the amalgamation of church structures and to the closure of approximately 50% of the parishes. Although these decisions help to contain costs and to better organise the human resources available, they also bring about a dismantling of the visible presence of the Church in society and the breakdown of people’s sense of belonging to the Church community.
This explains why the Church in the Netherlands is defined by the bishops as a “Church under reconstruction”, and why they are fielding some strategies to counter the erosion of the faith and of the fabric of the Church. In this context, the bishops appreciate the pastoral work being undertaken in catechesis by some of the movements and new communities present in the country. They also know that they can count on the freshness of the witness of faith given by the growing number of foreign Catholic communities in the Netherlands. They pointed to the presence of the Church in the new social networks where we can reach out to young people in their ‘meeting place’ and draw them to faith. Young people are also invited to the national day of Catholic youth organised every year by the Netherlands Bishops’ Conference. The efforts being made by the national youth ministry office, and many other apostolic initiatives, were rewarded by the Dutch representation of 300 young people at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. The bishops see these young people to be the hope of the Netherlands for a rebirth of the Church in their country. They live in a society that relegates faith to the private sphere, but in Rio de Janeiro, they discovered, along with three million others of their generation, the joy of openly confessing Jesus Christ. If they are guided well, they can become a driving force in helping many other young people in their country.
Cardinal Ryłko responded to the bishops with encouraging words of hope. He borrowed an expression used by Pope Francis to urge them not to let anyone rob them of hope. The cardinal pointed out that it is precisely when we are in the dark and the voices of doom are loudest, that the Lord calls pastors to become sowers of hope among the people of God entrusted to them.
Recalling a speech by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, the cardinal urged them to look beyond the events that seem to suggest the defeat of God, because in reality God’s cause is never a losing cause. Of course God created us to be free and respects our freedom even when we close ourselves off from God. However, as history has shown us, God raises up new avenues of mercy for human beings in order to show us unconditional love. WYD, ecclesial movements and new communities fall within the category of these new initiatives of mercy being raised up by the Holy Spirit for the good of the Church and of all humanity. If the Church in the Netherlands regards them as graces from the Lord into which to put their best energies, then they will transmit the joy and beauty of faith which will benefit society as a whole.
