Roman Catholicism in the Netherlands

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The Catholic Church in the Netherlands is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome. There are an estimated 4.5 millions Catholics in the Netherlands, 28 percent of the population. There are seven dioceses in the Netherlands. The number of parishes has decreased from 1,744 in 1990 to 1,463 in 2004. The number of Catholics in the Netherlands has also decreased in recent years, due to secularization and to a relatively low fertility rate among Catholics. This trend is largely visible in the four northern dioceses (Groningen, Utrecht, Haarlem and Rotterdam), who lost a total of 475,000 members between 1990 and 2000. The two southern dioceses ( Den Bosch and Roermond), where the vast majority of the population is Catholic, lost merely 25,000 members in this period.

Since the Reformation, Dutch Catholics have been confined to certain areas in the Netherlands where they still tend to form a (large) majority of the population, while being a (small) minority in other areas of the Netherlands where Protestant Christians made up the majority of the population. Catholics still form a (big) majority in the two southern provinces of the Netherlands, Noord-Brabant and Limburg, the Twente, Achterhoek, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen regions, as well as parts of Noord-Holland province.

However, with modern population shifts and a furthering secularization, these areas tend to be less and less predominantly Catholic.

Historically Catholics have been treated as second class citizens as they formed a minority in the dominant Protestant Netherlands. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth they formed a separate social pillar, with their own schools, TV and radio broadcasting, hospitals, unions and political parties. They formed a coalition with orthodox Protestants, who also felt discriminated. This pillarization and coalition government was important in emancipating the Catholics from their social exclusion.

After the Dutch Republic banned the Catholic religion in the 1580's the Netherlands became a Mission territory under the canonical authority of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (the so-called Dutch Mission). The Church Hierarchy was not restored until 1853.

Within the Netherlands the hierarchy consists of:

Archbishopric Bishopric

• Utrecht - Archbishop Adrianus Johannes Simonis (since 1983)
  • Den Bosch - Bishop Antonius Lambertus Maria Hurkmans (since 1998)
  • Breda - Bishop Martinus Petrus Maria Muskens (since 1994)
  • Groningen-Leeuwarden - Bishop Willem Jacobus Eijk (since 1999)
  • Haarlem - Bishop Jozef Marianus Punt (since 2001)
  • Roermond - Bishop Frans Jozef Marie Wiertz (since 1993)
  • Rotterdam - Bishop Adrianus Henricus van Luijn (since 1994)