“The Pontiff is showing himself in all his fragility in the eyes of the world”, thus becoming a “sign of the uniqueness and immutability of the values that each human being bears within himself”. So writes Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, president of the Dutch Episcopal Conference, in a letter addressed to the country’s Catholics, issued on 7 October, on the day following the canonization of the German-Dutch missionary Arnold Janssen. The letter also commemorates the jubilee of John Paul II and the beatification of Mother Teresa. It was printed in an edition of 950,000 copies, a record for the Dutch ecclesiastical province, and distributed free in all parishes. Apart from celebrating Arnold Janssen, “who inspired us to think of our personal missionary vocation, even in our own Dutch society”, the letter offers a reflection on the Pope’s jubilee and on the beatification of Mother Teresa, “one of the most significant Catholic personalities of the twentieth century”: “The Sermon on the Mount was for Mother Teresa not an ideal reference, but a precise indication for her choices in life”. The next ad limina visit of the Dutch bishops to the Vatican will take place from 7 to 13 March 2004.
