Johannes Willem Maria Bluyssen or Bluijssen (10 April 1926 in

Nijmegen Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...

− 8 August 2013) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

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 ...

bishop.

Life

Ordained to the priesthood in 1950, Bluyssen attained a degree in theology and was professor for Spirituality at the seminary. At the age of 35, younger than any Dutchman since the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, he was appointed titular bishop of ''Aëtus'' and auxiliary bishop of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch The Diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands. The modern diocese was created in 1853. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Utrecht. It is currently led b ...

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in 1961 and was named bishop of the diocese in 1966, after his predecessor, the outspoken bishop Willem Marinus Bekkers, died only 58 years old (brain tumor). Bluyssen resigned in 1984 for health reasons following an open heart surgery. He died after a short illness on 8 August 2013, aged 87, in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

.Bisschop Bluyssen overleden
Bluyssen was the last living Dutch bishop who actually took part in the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

. Furthermore he was able to celebrate his 50th anniversary of his episcopacy, a rare jubilee. At that particular time the Church in the Netherlands was heavily buried under sexual scandals by priests and religious of minors. Bluyssen called off all the already planned festivities, telling it was not a time for a feast but for shame. In Bluyssen's years as an ordinary Bluyssen was just like his predecessor Bekkers, be it less outspoken, a strong believer in the ''aggiornamento'', the renewal of his Church. Rather than renewal he saw to his grief a period where many quit the priesthood and the religious life, the Church participation declined and serious discord spread among Catholics, clergy and bishops. In his almost 30 years as an emeritus he published four books, mainly in the field of his earlier profession, spirituality.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bluyssen, Johannes 1926 births 2013 deaths Clergy from Nijmegen 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Netherlands