For decades missionary guilders and euros flowed to countries like Congo and Colombia, and it's ironic that the Netherlands should now be turning to these countries to recruit its priests. But the situation is dire.
Although with four million members the Roman Catholic Church is the largest in the Netherlands, the number of churchgoers is steadily falling. Last year around 322,000 Catholics went to church, 25 percent less than in 2000.
According to Father Rob van Hellenberg Hubar of the Dutch Priests' Association, the shortage of priests is one of the main reasons for the empty pews.
In 1980 there were 34,000 Catholic priests, but today the number has halved. This means fewer Masses can be celebrated.
And fewer Masses mean fewer people and also less money in the collection box. Mass, says Father Van Hellenberg Hubar, is the church's "core business".
Concerns about alternative services
Priests from abroad may be able to help to turn the tide. But there is another aspect to the problem. Because of the shortage of priests, an increasing number of alternative services are being held. Unlike Masses, these so-called Word and Communion services can be led by pastoral workers. And there are plenty available, many of them women.
The church authorities are unhappy about this development. In some cases they are even refusing to send parishes priests unless they stop holding such alternative services. However, there certainly won't be anything alternative about the imported priests. In countries like Congo and Colombia the church sticks a lot more closely to the Vatican line than it does in the rebellious Netherlands.
Traditional line
This was actually where earlier experiments with "imported priests" went awry. Under the previous archbishop, Ad Simonis, priests were brought in from Poland and India. But they had difficulties with Dutch culture, and many parishioners walked away because of their priest's highly traditional outlook. From then on Archbishop Simonis was reluctant to take the experiments any further.
Not so his successor, Wim Eijk. In his previous diocese, Groningen, he welcomed nine Colombian student priests. And he is well known for advocating an extremely traditional line.
Extremist thinking
The comparison with Islam is obvious in the light of the heated debate surrounding imams from conservative regions flown in to prevent the Dutch Muslim community from becoming too liberal. These so-called "hate imams" went on to preach all kinds of extremist thinking on issues like homosexuality and the position of women.
Father Van Hellenberg Hubar doesn't think the integration of imported priests should present too many problems. They will start learning Dutch before they leave their own country, he says, and when they arrive in the Netherlands the diocese will help them acclimatise to the culture.
But Father Van Hellenberg Hubar does believe the efforts should come from both directions. Dutch Catholics should be prepared to enter into an open discussion with the new priests.
There is one lesson the Priests' Association has learnt from past failures. This time recruitment will no longer be directed at individual priests but at religious orders and congregations. In this way the new priests will at least be able to give each other support in learning how to get on with awkward Dutch people.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce