John Wijngaards
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Johannes Nicolaas Maria Wijngaards (30 September 1935 – 2 January 2025) was a
Dutch Catholic The Catholic Church in the Netherlands () is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Its primate is the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht, since 2008 Willem Jacobus Eijk. In 2015 Catholicism wa ...
scripture scholar and a former priest. From 1977 he was prominent in his public opposition to the teaching of the
Catholic Church 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 ...
on the impossibility of ordaining women to the priesthood. In 1998 he resigned from his priestly ministry in protest against
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
’s decrees ''
Ordinatio sacerdotalis ''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'' () is an apostolic letter issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 May 1994. In this document, John Paul II discussed the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men alone" and wrote th ...
'' and ''
Ad Tuendam Fidem () is an apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II issued motu proprio on May 18, 1998.John Paul II''Ad tuendam fidem'' accessed Jan-9-2013 The apostolic letter modified the Oriental and Latin codes of canon law specifying the form of profession ...
'', which prohibited further discussion of the women priests’ issue in the Catholic Church.


Early years

Wijngaards was born on 30 September 1935 from Dietze van Hoesel and Dr Nicolaas Carel Heinrich Wijngaards, both Dutch citizens, in the Indonesian city of
Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...
. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, his father was made to work on the infamous
Burma Railway The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 ...
in Thailand, while John with his mother and three brothers were prisoners of war in
Malang Malang (; , ), historically known as Tumapel, is an inland List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of East Java. It has a history dating back to the age of the Singhasari, Singhasari K ...
,
Surakarta Surakarta (Javanese script, Javanese: , Pegon script, Pegon: ), known colloquially as Solo (Javanese script, Javanese: ; ), is a major List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in Central Java, Indonesia. The city adjoins Karanganyar Reg ...
and
Ambarawa Ambarawa is a town and an administrative district (''kecamatan'') of the Semarang Regency, located between the cities of Semarang and Salatiga in Central Java Province of Indonesia. Administratively, it is bordered by the districts of Banyubiru ...
. The family was repatriated to the Netherlands after the war.


Studies

John Wijngaards joined the
Mill Hill Missionaries The Mill Hill Missionaries (MHM), officially known as the Saint Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill (), is a Catholic society of apostolic life founded in 1866 by Herbert A. Vaughan. History The society was founded in 1866 by Herbert A. ...
and was ordained a priest in 1959. In Rome he obtained the Licentiate of Sacred Scripture at the
Pontifical Biblical Institute The Pontifical Biblical Institute (also known as Biblicum) is a research and postgraduate teaching institution specialised in biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies located in Rome. Founded in 1909 by Pope Pius X, it is an institution of the ...
and the Doctorate of Theology at the
Pontifical Gregorian University Pontifical Gregorian University (; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana), is a private university, private pontifical university in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as a part of the Roman College, founded in 1551 by Ignatius of Loyo ...
(1963). His studies focused on ''The Formulas of the Deuteronomic Creed'' (dissertation, Brill, Leiden 1963). Further research resulted in ''The Dramatisation of Salvific History in the Deuteronomic Schools'' (Brill, Leiden 1969) and a 360-page commentary on the book of
Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...
in the well-known Dutch series of commentaries published by Romen & Zonen (Roermond 1971).


Services in India

Wijngaards taught Sacred Scripture at St John's Major Seminary in
Hyderabad, India Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
(1963–1976). During that time he was instrumental in founding Amruthavani communication centre, Jeevan Jyoti theological institute for religious women and Jyotirmai, the statewide planning body for the Catholic dioceses of Andhra Pradesh. He served as part-time lecturer at the National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Centre in
Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
and was, for a number of years, a member of the National Advisory Council of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. At the same time he produced a number of books on Sacred Scripture including his well-known ''Background to the Gospels''. Research on the ministries convinced him that the exclusion of women must be attributed to cultural obstacles, not to Scripture or Tradition. He urged the Indian hierarchy to start a process of exploring the full ordination of women.


Worldwide responsibilities

After a spell as Vicar General of the
Mill Hill Missionaries The Mill Hill Missionaries (MHM), officially known as the Saint Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill (), is a Catholic society of apostolic life founded in 1866 by Herbert A. Vaughan. History The society was founded in 1866 by Herbert A. ...
in London (1976–1982), he became Director of Housetop, an international centre of adult faith formation (1982–2009). During that time (1983–1998) he was also Professor of Sacred Scripture at the Missionary Institute London which was affiliated to Louvain Catholic University and
Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...
. During this time he pioneered the ‘Walking on Water’ series of video courses for adult faith formation which were co-produced by 15 countries in all continents. He wrote the scripts for nine half-hour film stories. He also produced the acclaimed 2 ½ - hour film ''Journey to the Centre of Love'' of which he was both the scriptwriter and the executive producer (see awards below).


Activism and laicization

In 1977 Wijngaards wrote ''Did Christ Rule out Women Priests?'' (McCrimmon, Great Wakering) in response to '' Inter Insigniores'' (1976), the declaration by the
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is a department of the Roman Curia in charge of the religious discipline of the Catholic Church. The Dicastery is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of t ...
in which the Vatican's reasons for excluding women are clearly spelled out. In the decades that followed Rome reiterated its inability to confer ordination on women, culminating in ''
Ordinatio sacerdotalis ''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'' () is an apostolic letter issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 May 1994. In this document, John Paul II discussed the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men alone" and wrote th ...
'' (1995) and subsequent documents by which the discussion by theologians was curtailed. In protest, Wijngaards resigned from his priestly ministry on 17 September 1998. His request for official reduction to the status of a lay person was acknowledged by Rome on 21 February 2000. Wijngaards has continued publishing his reasons for advocating the ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood in a series of books, notably ''The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church'' and ''No Women in Holy Orders?'' In 1999 he established a website that has grown out to be the largest internet library with documentation on the ordination of women. Wijngaards said that speaking out does not undermine accepting the teaching authority of the Pope. He firmly opposed the illegal ordination of women outside the established structure of the Church, as is done in the
Roman Catholic Womenpriests Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an independent international organization that claims a connection to the Roman Catholic Church. It is descended from the Danube Seven, a group of women who assert that they were ordained as priests in 2002 by ...
movement.


Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research

From 2005, Wijngaards focused on other issues he felt needed reform in the Catholic Church. He created a pastoral website to deal with the sexual code. He drafted the Catholic Scholars' Declaration on Authority in the Church which gained international support. His Centre was reshaped to become the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research. Its main purpose is to publish independent Catholic scholarly assessments as 'a progressive theological think tank'. The Institute submitted a 'Documented Appeal' to Pope Francis, urging him to restore the ancient ordained diaconate for women. In 2016 he initiated the Catholic Scholars' Statement on the Ethics of Using Contraceptives which was launched on a United Nations platform.


Personal life

In 1998, after being
laicized In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy. The ...
, Wijngaards married Jacqueline Clackson in a simple Church ceremony.


Awards

*Grand Prix, as scriptwriter for ''Journey to the Centre of Love'', Tenth International Catholic Film Festival, Warsaw 1995. *The Marga Klompé Award, 2005.


Death

Wijngaards died on 2 January 2025, at the age of 89.


Bibliography

* ''The Formulas of the Deuteronomic Creed'' (Brill, Leiden 1963) * ''The Dramatization of Salvific History in the Deuteronomic Schools'' (Brill, Leiden, 1969) * ''Background to the Gospels'' (St Paul's, Delhi 1970) * ''God's Word to Israel'' (TPI, Ranchi 1971) * ''Did Christ Rule Out Women Priests?'' (McCrimmons, Great Wakering 1977) * ''Communicating God’s Word'' (McCrimmons, Great Wakering 1978) * ''Reading God’s Word to Others'' (ATC, Bangalore 1981) * ''Experiencing Jesus'' (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame 1981) * ''Inheriting the Master’s Cloak'' (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame 1985) * ''The Gospel of John and his Letters'' (Michael Glazier, Wilmington 1986) * ''The Spirit in John'' (Michael Glazier, Wilmington 1987) * ''God Within Us'' (Collins, London 1988) * ''My Galilee My People'' (Housetop, London 1990) * ''For The Sake of His People'' (McCrimmons, Great Wakering 1990) * ''Together in My Name'' (Housetop, London 1991) * ''I Have No Favourites'' (Housetop, London 1992) * ''How to Make Sense of God'' (Sheed & Ward, Kansas City 1995) * ''The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church. Unmasking a Cuckoo’s Egg Tradition'' (Darton, Longman & Todd, London 2001) * ''No Holy Orders for Women? The Ancient Women Deacons'' (Canterbury Press, London 2002; Herder & Herder, New York 2006) * ''The Ordained Women Deacons of the Church's First Millennium'' (Canterbury Press, London 2011) * ''AMRUTHA. What the Pope's man found out about the Law of Nature'' (Author House, Bloomington 2011) * ''What they don't teach you in Catholic College. Women in the priesthood and the mind of Christ'' (Acadian House, Lafayette) * ''Ten Commandments for Church Reform. Memoir of a Catholic Priest'' (Acadian House, Lafayette 2021)More info here: https://ten-commandments.org/.


References


Sources

* ''Who’s Who in the World 1996'' (Marquis Publications), p. 508. * ''Who’s Who in Catholic Life 2009'' (Gabriel Communications, Manchester), p. 391.


External links


John Wijngaards life story

Publications by John Wijngaards online

Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research

Ten Commandments for Church Reform
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wijngaards, John 1935 births 2025 deaths 20th-century Dutch Roman Catholic theologians 21st-century Dutch Roman Catholic theologians 20th-century Dutch Roman Catholic priests Dutch male writers Indonesian Roman Catholic priests People from Surabaya Dutch expatriates in India Dutch biblical scholars Roman Catholic biblical scholars Laicized Roman Catholic priests Pontifical Biblical Institute alumni Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Male feminists Dutch Roman Catholic writers Women's ordination activists Ordination of women and the Catholic Church