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Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, President of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference, appealed in recent days to the Churches to become more visible to Dutch society. The cardinal was speaking during the launch of the campaign for the Church budget 2006. “Ours isn’t a Church on the retreat”, declared Simonis: “some Churches at one time were such and could become so again”, and he continued by presenting the motto: “a Church is all it’s worth”. In the cardinal’s view, the Churches should “continuously question themselves about what are the real causes for the rejection of religious values” and not seek refuge in the comfortable solution of just pointing the finger at society. “But asked the cardinal do the Churches dare enough to be visible and missionary communities?” “Growing in size and in depth” are the two motions that the Churches could make to become more visible and more missionary. And Simonis added: “acting in a Christian way may have an inestimable value as witness”. The second motion, on the other hand, that of going in depth, “brings the individual believer and the community closer to the source and objective of the Church: Jesus Christ”. “Our society, too, must be moved by the dual motion of enlargement and deepening, so that a change of mentality may be achieved. Enlargement is not a superfluous luxury”, but “a plan for attaining a mentality of respect, freedom, dignity and responsibility on the part of both the individual and the community”.
