Herman Alphons Verbeek (17 May 1936 – 1 February 2013) was a Dutch

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Biography

Verbeek studied

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

and became a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest in 1963. From 6 September 1963 to 28 August 1965, he was a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

Joure Joure (; West Frisian: ''De Jouwer'') is a town in the north of the Netherlands. It is the administrative center of De Fryske Marren, Friesland. With 13,090 inhabitants, it is also the most populous town in the municipality. Residents of Joure a ...

. Between 1968 and 1973, he was an advisor to the

diocese of Groningen The Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden (; ) is a suffragan Latindiocese of the Catholic Church in the northern part of the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht (covering all the Netherlands). It encompass ...

. He was a priest of the diocese of Groningen, but since becoming politically active in 1969, he no longer held any ecclesiastical office. In 1999, he openly clashed with the newly appointed bishop of Groningen,

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 hi ...

, over his views on

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

, publicly coming out as a

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

priest. From 1974 to 1977, he was the chairman of the provincial board of the

Political Party of Radicals The Political Party of Radicals (, PPR) was a progressive Christian (''radicaal-christelijke'') and green political party in the Netherlands. The PPR played a relatively small role in Dutch politics and merged with other left-wing parties to for ...

in Groningen. From 1977 to 1981, he was the national party chairman. In 1984, he was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

for the

Green Progressive Accord The Green Progressive Accord (Dutch: ''Groen Progressief Akkoord'') was an alliance of Dutch political parties: the Political Party of Radicals (PPR), the Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP), the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) and the Gre ...

, a coalition of the PPR, the

Communist Party of the Netherlands The Communist Party of the Netherlands (, , CPN) was a communist party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social Democratic Party (Netherlands), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the ...

(CPN), and the

Pacifist Socialist Party The Pacifist Socialist Party (, PSP) was a Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in the Netherlands. It is one of the predecessors of GroenLinks. Party history Before 1957 In 1955, a group of "politically homeless" activists ...

(PSP). It was agreed that the PPR candidate would step down halfway through the term in favor of the CPN candidate, Nel van Dijk. Verbeek left the European Parliament in 1986. In 1989, Verbeek became the lead candidate for the

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

, a coalition of PPR, CPN, PSP, and the EVP, for the

1989 European Parliament election The 1989 European Parliament election was a held on June Wednesday 15 to Sunday 18 across the 12 European Union member state in June 1989. It was the third European Parliament election but the first time that Spain and Portugal voted at the sam ...

. Again, it was agreed that the PPR candidate would step down halfway through the term, this time in favor of the PSP candidate, John Hontelez. In 1991, Verbeek refused to do so, believing he still had work to do for organic farmers. The party board of

GroenLinks (, ; GL) is a Green politics, green List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four Left-wing politics, left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Neth ...

(which included PSP, PPR, and CPN) wanted to expel him, but the party council refused to approve the expulsion. Verbeek remained a member of the European Parliament but operated independently of his party. In 1994, he left GroenLinks and became the lead candidate for

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * The Greens (Benin) *The Greens (Bulgaria) * Greens of Bosnia and He ...

in the 1994 European elections, but the party did not meet the electoral threshold. Verbeek authored many spiritual and political books, such as ''Tegen de tijdgeest'' and ''Liedboek Voor De Ziel''. He died on 1 February 2013. A

posthumous Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

was published.2013 - ''Toen daalde de duif. Herinneringen. Herman Verbeek, priester, politicus, publicist.'' - Under the auspices of the Verbeekfonds Foundation. - Publisher Profiel. ISBN 9789052945507 The

ecumenical Ecumenism ( ; alternatively spelled oecumenism)also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalismis the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships ...

songbook ''Zangen van Zoeken en Zien'' (2015) is dedicated to Herman Verbeek. (2015) - ''Zangen van Zoeken en Zien: oecumenische liedbundel.'' Utrecht: Kok. ISBN 9789043525862. In 2018, ''Dat gij het zingt'', a collection of Verbeek's posthumous songs and reflections, was published, edited by Chris van Bruggen and Michaël Steehouder.

Publications (selection)

* Herman Verbeek: ''Liedboek voor de ziel''. Groningen, 2005. ISBN 978-90-8759-470-1 * Herman Verbeek: ''Toen daalde de duif. Herinneringen Herman Verbeek, priester, politicus, publicist''. utobiography.Groningen, 2013. ISBN 978-90-5294-550-7 * Herman Verbeek: ''In boeren handen. Voor een rechtvaardige en verantwoorde landbouw'', Kok Agora, Kampen, 1989. ISBN 9024276160 * Herman Verbeek: ''Economie als Wereldoorlog'', Kok Agora, Kampen, 1990. ISBN 9024276896 * Herman Verbeek: ''Boeren Belang. Voor een sociale en ekologische organisatie van de landbouw'', with a foreword by Sicco Mansholt, Kok Agora, Kampen, 1992. ISBN 9039100276

Publications about Verbeek

* Stefan van der Poel: ''Herman Verbeek (1936-2013). Priester, politicus, publicist''. Hilversum, Uitgeverij Verloren, 2020. ISBN 9789087048327 * Armando Lampe: ''Een leven dat te denken geeft. Over de priester-politicus Herman Verbeek (1936-2013)''. Voorburg, U2pi, 2014. ISBN 978-90-8759-470-1

External links

Herman Verbeek: "De stad in feite dicteert wat er op het platteland moet gebeuren, in plaats van omgekeerd"

Literatuurplein.nl

Herman Verbeek
on parlement.com ---- {{DEFAULTSORT:Verbeek, Herman 20th-century Dutch LGBTQ people Chairmen of the Political Party of Radicals GroenLinks politicians Members of the European Parliament for the Netherlands Dutch Roman Catholic priests Dutch gay politicians Political Party of Radicals politicians LGBTQ MEPs for the Netherlands 1936 births 2013 deaths