Catholic revival?” “

In 2002, 6 Dutch out of 10 over the age of 18 considered themselves members of a religious “family” and 2 out of 10 had been at least once per month to a church or mosque. These findings emerge from the data published by CBS, the country’s statistical bureau, in December 2003. According to the statistics, almost a third of Dutch believers are Catholics, 14% Reformed and 7% Protestants. All the other religious families, including Islam, account for roughly 8% of the population. Approximately 40% of the population do not regard themselves members of any religious community. ACCORDING TO THE SAME DATA familiarity with religion does not imply frequent visits to cult buildings. Almost 8 people out of 10 seldom or never visit a church or a mosque. A fifth attend a religious service at least once per month and less than 12% go to church on a weekly basis. The statistics show that the percentage of those who go to church at least once each month has been falling steadily since 1997. OTHER MORE DETAILED DATA on the situation of Catholics in Holland in the years 2001/2002 have been published by the Kaski research institute, which has processed the “ecclesiastical statistics of the Catholic church”. The percentage of the Dutch who go to mass in Catholic churches on Sunday has been gradually falling, but the annual negative trend has more recently been reduced: in 2001 and in 2002 the average percentage decline was 2.5%, against the 3.5% in the 1990s. According to the Church’s own figures, there were over 5 million registered Catholics in Holland at 31 December 2002. This number further declined by 47,000 over the figure for the end of 2000, just as the percentage of Catholics out of the total population has declined. At the end of 2002 they represented 31.2%, i.e. 0.7% less than the equivalent figure for the end of 2000. The subdivision by age groups of Catholics shows that persons over the age of 65 formed 17.6% of the overall number of Catholics. FALLING CATHOLIC MARRIAGES AND FUNERALS. In 2002 some 8,800 marriages were celebrated in Catholic churches: a significant drop (17.4%) over 2000. Again according to the Church’s own figures, some 38,000 persons were given a Catholic funeral in 2002; of these some 25,000 (65%) were inhumed and 13,000 cremated (34.9%). The percentage of Catholic funerals has been gradually falling since 1995, while the annual overall number of deaths in the country has been rising. The overall percentage of Catholic funerals, like that of Catholic marriages, has been declining. CHURCH ATTENDANCES. On average 408,500 Catholics attended a weekend religious service in 2002. This figure represents 8.6% of all parishioners over the age of 7. At the present time the number of regular churchgoers is approximately 590,000. But this figure takes into account the fact that, for purposes of recent surveys, church attendance once or twice a month is enough to be included among regular churchgoers. PARISH MINISTRY. At the end of 2002 the number of parishes in Holland was 1,557: 43 less than in 2000. The number of those working in parishes dropped to 1,281 in 2002. The number of priests engaged in the parish ministry dropped to 864, while the number of permanent deacons engaged in the same ministry rose from 54 to 58. Lastly the number of staff employed in other ministries and other church structures rose from 393 in 2000 to 415 in 2002. DECLINING NUMBERS OF CATHOLICS “We now have behind us the period of major decline, but the majority of believers in 2004 is of advanced age”. That’s how Pieter Kohnen, spokesman of the Dutch bishops, comments on the CBS data. “In percentage terms, the Dutch population has been steadily growing, also due to non-Catholic immigrants. Obviously this impacts on the percentage of Catholics. Both in absolute and relative terms, the Catholic Church is set to decline, and the same goes for all the traditional churches in Holland. Many consider being Catholic a lifestyle, an attitude, that cannot be measured by frequency of visits to church. It’s true that baptism makes people members of the Catholic Church, even if the practice of the faith is discontinued thereafter, but in this case we speak of “borderline Catholics” or “sleeping Catholics”. These people often go to church for fundamental events like baptisms, marriages and deaths. This group represents a strong potential for revival and deserves greater attention.