, native_name_lang = , image = Catharijnekerk Utrecht.jpg , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = St Catherine's Cathedral,

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

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National polity A polity is an identifiable political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any other group of p ...

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Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

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Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

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President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

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Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

Hans van den Hende Johannes Hermannes Jozefus (Hans) van den Hende ( Groningen, January 9, 1964) is a Dutch Roman Catholic clergyman. He was appointed bishop of the diocese of Breda on October 31, 2007. On 10 May 2011, pope Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of the ...

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Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

, leader_name2 = Archbishop

Wim Eijk Willem Jacobus "Wim" Eijk (born 22 June 1953) is a Dutch prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal since 2012. He has been the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht since 2007. He was Bishop of Groningen-Leeuwarden from 1999 to 2007. Before his c ...

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Apostolic Nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international ...

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Aldo Cavalli Aldo Cavalli (born 18 October 1946) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1979 and served as an apostolic nuncio from 1996 to 2021. In November 2021 he became Apostolic Visitor to Medjugo ...

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Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

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Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, headquarters = St Catherine's Cathedral,

, origin_link = , founder = , founded_date = , founded_place = , separated_from = , parent = , merger = , absorbed = , separations =

Mennonites Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

(1540)

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

(1571)

Old Catholic Church The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivide ...

(1724) , merged_into = , defunct = , congregations_type = , congregations = , members = 3,785,000 , ministers_type = , ministers = , missionaries = , churches = , hospitals = , nursing_homes = , aid = , primary_schools = , secondary_schools = , tax_status = , tertiary = , other_names = , publications = , website
Episcopal Conference of the Netherlands
, slogan = , logo = , footnotes = The Catholic Church in the

( nl, Rooms-katholiek kerkgenootschap in Nederland) is part of the worldwide

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

under the spiritual leadership of the

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. Its

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

is the Metropolitan

Archbishop of Utrecht List of bishops and archbishops of the diocese and archdioceses of Utrecht. Medieval diocese from 695 to 1580 Founders of the Utrecht diocese * * * * * Bishops * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

, currently

Willem Jacobus Eijk Willem Jacobus "Wim" Eijk (born 22 June 1953) is a Dutch prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal since 2012. He has been the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht since 2007. He was Bishop of Groningen-Leeuwarden from 1999 to 2007. Before his c ...

since 2008. In 2015

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

was the single largest religion of the Netherlands, forming some 23% of the Dutch people, based on in-depth interviewing, down from 40% in the 1960s. 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 Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

country, Catholicism surpassed Protestantism after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and in 2012 the Netherlands was only 10%

Dutch Protestant The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family an ...

(down from 60% in the early 20th century; defections are primarily due to rising lack of

affiliation Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platf ...

that started to occur two decades earlier than in Dutch Catholicism). There are an estimated 3.7 million Catholics registered (2021) by the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, 21.7% of the population, 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). The number of people registered as Catholic in the Netherlands continues to decrease, roughly by half a percent annually. North Brabant and

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

have been historically the most

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 Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with ''deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred to ...

; 55% as ietsist,

deist Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...

, or agnostic; and 17% as atheist.God in Nederland' (1996-2006), by Ronald Meester, G. Dekker, 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. Sunday

church attendance Church attendance is a central religious practice for many Christians; some Christian denominations, such as the Catholic Church require church attendance on the Lord's Day (Sunday); the Westminster Confession of Faith is held by the Reformed ...

by Catholics has decreased in recent decades to less than 200,000 or 1.2% of the Dutch population in 2006. More recent numbers for Sunday church attendance have not been published (with the exception of the

Diocese of Roermond The Roman Catholic Diocese of Roermond is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, located in the Netherlands. The diocese is one of the seven suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrech ...

), although press releases have mentioned a further decline since 2006. In December 2011 a report was published by

Wim Deetman Willem Joost "Wim" Deetman (born 3 April 1945) is a retired Dutch politician and teacher who served as Minister of Education and Sciences from 1982 to 1989, Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1989 to 1996 and Mayor of The Hague from ...

, 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. A planned visit of

to the Netherlands was blocked by Cardinal

in 2014, allegedly because of the feared lack of interest for the

among the Dutch public.

History

Medieval period

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 Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

, the Frisians and

Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

. 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 Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks duri ...

and then the

Carolingian Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the ...

until the end of the 9th century. From the center of the Diocese of Tongeren-Maastricht-Liège, successively the cities of

Tongeren Tongeren (; french: Tongres ; german: Tongern ; li, Tóngere ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the onl ...

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

and Liège, this part of the Low Countries was probably Christianized. According to tradition, the first

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 The Frisian Kingdom ( fy, Fryske Keninkryk), also known as Magna Frisia, is a modern name for the post-Roman Frisian realm in Western Europe in the period when it was at its largest (650–734). This dominion was ruled by kings and emerged in th ...

remained Germanic pagan but were eventually conquered by

Charles Martel Charles Martel ( – 22 October 741) was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death. He was a son of the Frankish statesm ...

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 Anglo-Saxon missionaries were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century, continuing the work of Hiberno-Scottish missionaries which had been spreading Celtic Christianity across the Frankish Empire a ...

as Catholic Christians from the various kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England moved to the Continent, such as St.

Willibrord Willibrord (; 658 – 7 November AD 739) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary and saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg. Early life His fath ...

, the Apostle of the Frisians and St.

Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations o ...

, 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

were part of

Middle Francia Middle Francia ( la, Francia media) was a short-lived Frankish kingdom which was created in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun after an intermittent civil war between the grandsons of Charlemagne resulted in division of the united empire. Middle Franc ...

and then

Lotharingia Lotharingia ( la, regnum Lotharii regnum Lothariense Lotharingia; french: Lotharingie; german: Reich des Lothar Lotharingien Mittelreich; nl, Lotharingen) was a short-lived medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire. As a more durable ...

, before eventually becoming part of the

Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

as part of the

Burgundian Netherlands In the history of the Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands (french: Pays-Bas bourguignons, nl, Bourgondische Nederlanden, lb, Burgundeschen Nidderlanden, wa, Bas Payis borguignons) or the Burgundian Age is the period between 1384 and ...

. Originally under the

House of Valois-Burgundy The House of Valois-Burgundy (french: Maison de Valois-Bourgogne, nl, Huis van Valois-Bourgondië), or the Younger House of Burgundy, was a noble French family deriving from the royal House of Valois. It is distinct from the Capetian House of Bur ...

by the end of the 15th century it was part of the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary, wife of Maximilian I of Austr ...

as part of a vast Catholic

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

dominated by the

Kingdom of Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Since the rise of Calvinism

Since the

War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List o ...

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 The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

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,

(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 A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: *Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administra ...

(the so-called

Dutch Mission The Holland Mission or Dutch Mission ( or ') (1592 – 1853) was the common name of a Catholic Church missionary district in the Low Countries during and after the Protestant Reformation. History Pre-reformation diocese and archdiocese of ...

). The episcopal hierarchy was not restored until 1853, with the

reestablishment of the episcopal hierarchy in the Netherlands On 4 March 1853, Pope Pius IX restored the episcopal hierarchy in the Netherlands with the papal bull '' Ex qua die arcano'', Translated in after the Dutch Constitutional Reform of 1848 had made this possible. The re-establishment of the episco ...

Restoration of Catholic hierarchy

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Catholics formed a separate social

pillar A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

, with their own schools, TV and radio broadcasting, hospitals, unions, and

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

. 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 Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, Scotland, Switzerland, and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Recent Era

At the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

, representatives of the Dutch Church were prominent on the liberal-wing: especially Cardinal

Bernardus Johannes Alfrink Bernardus Johannes Alfrink (5 July 1900 – 17 December 1987) was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1955 to 1975, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1960. Biography Born in Nijkerk, ...

, who had the Belgian ''periti''

Edward Schillebeeckx Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx (November 12, 1914–December 23, 2009) was a Belgian Catholic theologian born in Antwerp. He taught at the Catholic University in Nijmegen. He was a member of the Dominican Order. His books on ...

working under him and also Fr.

Johannes Willebrands Johannes Gerardus Maria Willebrands (4 September 1909 in Bovenkarspel, North Holland – 1 August 2006) was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 1 ...

, who was involved in ecumenism and promoting religious liberty. While on the otherhand, Fr.

Sebastiaan Tromp Sebastiaan Peter Cornelis Tromp (16 March 1889 – 8 February 1975) was a Dutch Jesuit priest, theologian, and Latinist, who is best known for assisting Pope Pius XII in his theological encyclicals, and Pope John XXIII in the preparation ...

, a Dutchman who worked under Cardinal

Alfredo Ottaviani Alfredo Ottaviani (29 October 1890 – 3 August 1979) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII named him cardinal in 1953. He served as secretary of the Holy Office in the Roman Curia from 1959 to 1966 when that dicaste ...

, was involved in drawing up the original conservative ''schemas'' which were thrown out. Following the Council, Schillebeeckx and Piet Schoonenberg released the '' Dutch Catechism'', which was one of the more radical representations of the " spirit of Vatican II" in Europe. The

Bishops' Conference of the Netherlands The Bishops' Conference of the Netherlands ( nl, Nederlandse Bisschoppenconferentie) is a permanent body within the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands which determines policies and directs the apostolic mission within the Netherlands. It i ...

under Johannes Bluyssen was engaged in a number of controversies with Rome around this time, also, relating to a wide variety of issues from morality, to doctrine, to the liturgy. After 1970, the emphasis on Catholic concepts and traditions such as hell, the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

sin In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...

Confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...

, 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. In 2006, in the Diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch (in the eastern part of

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the w ...

and in part of

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

), only 45,645 residents, mostly people over 65, attended

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

, only 2% of the total population in that area. In western North Brabant (the

Diocese of Breda The Roman Catholic Diocese of Breda is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. Description It was erected on March 14, 1853, with Johannes van Hooydonk being made its first bishop. The current bishop is Joh ...

), 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. 92% of Dutch Catholics support

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

and 3% oppose it. 95% of Dutch Catholics believe society should accept

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, while 4% believe society should not accept homosexuality.

Child abuse scandal

In December 2011 a report was published by

, 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. 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." In March 2012, however, it was revealed that left out were the cases of 10 children being surgically

castrated Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmac ...

after reporting being sexually abused to the police. It also emerged that in 1956 former prime minister Victor Marijnen, then chairman of a children's home in

, had covered up the

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

of children. According to the ''Telegraph'' newspaper, he "intervened to have prison sentences dropped against several priests convicted of abusing children." The factuality of these claims is unclear, though. The Commission rejected all the claims.

Dioceses

There are seven

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

s in the Netherlands: * Metropolitan Archdiocese of Utrecht, St Catherine's Cathedral, Archbishop

(since 2007) **

, St. Anthony of Padua Cathedral, Bishop Johannes Liesen (since 2011) **

Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden The Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden ( nl, Bisdom Groningen-Leeuwarden; la, Dioecesis Groningensis-Leovardiensis) is a suffragan Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern part of the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Roman Ca ...

, St. Joseph Cathedral, Bishop Ron van den Hout (since 2017) ** Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam, Cathedral of St Bavo, Bishop

Jan Hendriks Jan Hendriks (6 December 1928 – 13 December 1991) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films on screen and TV between 1950 and 1985. In 1952 he won the German Film Award as Best Male Newcomer. Between 1977–1985 he co-star ...

(since 2020) **

, St. Christopher's Cathedral, Bishop Hendrikus Smeets (since 2018) ** Diocese of Rotterdam, St. Lawrence and St. Elizabeth Cathedral, Bishop

(since 2011) ** Diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch), St. John's Cathedral, Bishop Gerard de Korte (since 2016) There is also the

Military Ordinariate of the Netherlands The Military Ordinariate of the Netherlands is a military ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. Immediately subject to the Holy See, it provides pastoral care to Roman Catholics serving in the Dutch Armed Forces and their families. History ...

for the Dutch military and the

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saint Vladimir the Great of Paris The Eparchy of Saint Vladimir the Great of Paris (french: Éparchie Saint Vladimir-le-Grand de Paris des Ukrainiens) is an eparchy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, a ''sui iuris'' church of the Roman Catholic Church. Its territory encompass ...

is for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic population of the Netherlands. Former dioceses of the Netherlands included: Diocese of Deventer, Diocese of Leeuwarden,

Diocese of Maastricht The Diocese of Maastricht (Latin Traiectum ad Mosam) was a Roman Catholic jurisdiction in parts of present Netherlands (including the see Maastricht) and Belgium, which has been nominally revived as a Latin titular bishopric. History Establishe ...

, Diocese of Middelburg, Apostolic Vicariate of Batavia,

Apostolic Vicariate of Grave-Nijmegen Apostolic may refer to: The Apostles An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission: *The Twelve Apostles of Jesus, or something related to them, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles *Apostolic succession, the doctrine connecting the Christian Churc ...

, Apostolic Vicariate of Limburg, and the

Apostolic Vicariate of Ravenstein-Megen The Apostolic Vicariate of Ravenstein-Megen was a short-lived pre-diocesan Latin Catholic jurisdiction in a small southern part of the Netherlands. History Established on 1803.03.22 as Apostolic Vicariate (hence not entitled to a (titular) bis ...

Demographics

These figures are the latest available as of Dec 31, 2010 from ecclesiastical statistics: According to the church administration, in 2010 two dioceses –

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

and Roermond – still had a majority of Catholics in the population. It is notable that SILA (Stichting Interkerkelijke Ledenadministratie) published for these two dioceses a 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) found 23.3% of the population to be nominal Catholic in 2014, based on registration by the Catholic church. These numbers are higher than the numbers of Catholic adherence found by Radboud University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (11.7% Catholic in 2015). These surveys show a 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 – a phenomenon known as 'belonging without believing'. 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. Many remaining churches have found purposes outside the religious domain, like stores, apartment buildings and museums.

Churches

As well as the cathedrals, notable Catholic churches in the Netherlands also include: * Basilica of Saint Nicholas, Amsterdam * Begijnhof Chapel, Amsterdam * Church of Our Lady, Amsterdam * Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Amsterdam * De Krijtberg, Amsterdam * Mozes en Aäronkerk, Amsterdam *

James the Greater Church The James the Greater Church (Dutch: ''Jacobus de Meerderekerk'') is a Roman Catholic church, located on the Pastoor Neujeanstraat 6 in Bocholtz, Netherlands. First mentioned in the 14th century, the current church was built in 1869 by Pierre Cuype ...

, Bocholtz * St Francis Xavier Church, Enkhuizen * St Willibrordus, Hulst * St Joseph's Church, Leiden * Heilige Lodewijkkerk, Leiden * Basilica of Our Lady, Maastricht * Basilica of Saint Servatius, Maastricht * St Peter Canisius Church, Nijmegen * Basilica of St Plechelm, Oldenzaal * Oudenbosch Basilica * Church of St John the Baptist, Pijnacker * St Lambert's Church, Rosmalen * Saint Remigius Church, Simpelveld * Basilica of St Amelberga, Susteren * Gerardus Majellakerk, Tilburg *

Heuvelse kerk The Heuvelse kerk (''Heuvel church''; also Sint-Jozefkerk) is a neo-Gothic Catholic church in the center of the Dutch city Tilburg. Dedicated to Saint Joseph, it is one of two major Catholic churches in the city center together with the Heikese ke ...

, Tilburg * Saint Bernard Church, Ubachsberg * Saint Paul's Church, Vaals * Our Lady of the Enclosed Garden, Warfhuizen Monasteries also include: *

Egmond Abbey Egmond Abbey or St. Adalbert's Abbey ( nl, Abdij van Egmond, ''Sint-Adelbertabdij'') is a Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of the Annunciation between Egmond aan den Hoef and Bakkum in Egmond-Binnen in the municipality of Bergen in the ...

St. Benedictusberg Abbey St. Benedictusberg Abbey, also Mamelis Abbey, is a Benedictine monastery established in 1922 in Mamelis, a Hamlet (place), hamlet which administratively falls within Vaals, Netherlands. It is a rijksmonument. Since 1951 St. Benedictusberg has belo ...

* St. Willibrord's Abbey *

Carmelite Monastery, Echt The Carmelite Monastery in Echt, Netherlands, Echt ( nl, Karmelitessenklooster te Echt), in the Limburg (Netherlands), province of Limburg, the Netherlands, also known as the Echt Carmel, is a community of Discalced Carmelite nuns established in 1 ...

Berne Abbey Berne Abbey, a Dutch abbey of the Premonstratensians, or Norbertines, in Heeswijk, North Brabant, is a religious community in the Netherlands. It has 27 brothers and priests (2007; down from 33 in 2005). The community publishes a bi-monthly magazi ...

* Achel Abbey *

Koningshoeven Abbey Koningshoeven Abbey ( nl, Abdij Koningshoeven, Abdij Onze Lieve Vrouw van Koningshoeven) is a monastery of the Trappists (Order of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance) founded in 1881 in Berkel-Enschot in North Brabant, the Netherlands. Fou ...

* Lilbosch Abbey

Notable Dutch Catholics

Notable Dutch Catholics throughout history include

Pope Adrian VI Pope Adrian VI ( la, Hadrianus VI; it, Adriano VI; nl, Adrianus/Adriaan VI), born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his d ...

Ruud Lubbers Rudolphus Franciscus Marie "Ruud" Lubbers (; 7 May 1939 – 14 February 2018) was a Dutch politician, diplomat and businessman who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1982 to 1994, and as United Nations High Commissioner for Re ...

, Henry of Gorkum,

Hadewijch Hadewijch, sometimes referred to as Hadewych or Hadewig (of Brabant or of Antwerp) was a 13th-century poet and mystic, probably living in the Duchy of Brabant. Most of her extant writings are in a Brabantian form of Middle Dutch. Her writings i ...

, Cornelius Loos,

Jakob Middendorp Jakob Middendorp (Latin Jacobus Middendorpius) (, Twente – 13 January 1611, Cologne) was a Dutch Catholic theologian and churchman, academic and historian. Life Middendorp was born about 1537 in Oldenzaal, or perhaps Ootmarsum, as he called him ...

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/ Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on o ...

Piet de Jong Petrus Jozef Sietse "Piet" de Jong (; 3 April 1915 – 27 July 2016) was a Dutch politician of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) now the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and naval officer who served as Prime Minister of the Neth ...

, Jan Harmenszoon Krul,

Dries van Agt Andreas Antonius Maria "Dries" van Agt (; born 2 February 1931) is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) and later the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist who served as Prime Minister of t ...

Jan Steen Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried 3 February 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour. Lif ...

Casimir Ubaghs Gérard Casimir Ubaghs (a/k/a Gerhard Casimir Ubaghs) (November 26, 1800 – February 15, 1875) - Dutch Catholic philosopher and theologian. For about 30 years (1834–1864) he was the chief formulator and promoter of a type of philosophical theolo ...

, Maxime Verhagen,

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...

, and Joan Albert Ban.

References

{{Catholicism in Europe