The decade of the truth

Two years since his installation as Cardinal of Utrecht, last week archbishop Wim Eijk released an interview to the major Dutch daily De Telegraaf and tp the Country’s Catholic media, transmitted by RKK Kruispunkt TV and Kruispunt Radio. His Eminence addressed numerous topics which include the prospected drop in the number of Catholic faithful in the country and its practical impacts. For the first time, in the January 31st interview, the Cardinal was asked to respond to criticisms on the recent burdensome financial restructuring of the archdiocese of Utrecht.The financial situation of the archdiocese of Utrecht. In the beginning of 2008, when Eijk was nominated to the lead of the archdiocese of Utrecht, the largest in The Netherlands, the local financial situation registered a deficit of 1.5 million euro on an annual budget of 5 million. Recovery measures entailed heavy staff cuts – only 30 remained of 100 collaborators employed in 2008. Despite heavy criticism to this regard, the prelate recalled that he was complimented by trade unions for the reallocation plans aimed at protecting redundancies, and underlined that these restrictive measures were necessary to prevent bankruptcy. Indeed, he pointed out that “the situation of the diocese required direct and urgent intervention, while all possible precautions were taken”. Obviously, he continues, “there are always new things to learn from experience, but the reform and the related decisions could not be avoided”.Arieen boarding school shut down. The recent expense cuts exposed Cardinal Eijk to severe criticism on the part of the media, as was the case of the closing of the Arieen boarding school due to high management costs compared with relatively low numbers of students. In fact, each student constituted a yearly expense of 36 thousand euro. It was thus decided to shut down the school and the students were diverted to the seminary of the dioceses of Haarlem and Amsterdam, where costs amount to 7,500 euro per student. Because of this decision Cardinal Eijk was accused of siding with the seminary model and of opposing the boarding school educational system. His Eminence rejected the accusation and recalled that he does “not favour this model”, since the “shutting down of the boarding school in Arieen was a drastic decision of which the burden was assumed, given the archdiocese’ desperate financial conditions”. The Cardinal reiterated the need to act quickly to restore the finances of the diocese, since “if it hadn’t been done, we would have been insolvent by the end of the year and this possibility hanged like the spade of Damocles over my head”. Provisions taken in the past two years curbed the financial draining although “we no longer dispose of financial resources and are forced to depend on parishes’ remittance, mostly conveyed through the Kerkbalans (ecclesial budget)”.Drop in the number of Catholic faithful. Another serious problem, as reported in the interview to De Telegraaf, The Netherlands’ major daily newspaper, published past January 30, is the ongoing fall in the number of Catholics in The Netherlands. “The next decade, said Card. Eijk “will be the decade of the truth”: figures show that Catholics, who currently account for 16% of the overall population, are bound to drop to 10% in 2020. This figure is expected to remain unchanged, although this reduction, will have “serious practical consequences since, owing to the drop in the number of faithful, a large amount of ecclesial property will become disused”. It is therefore expected that “some one thousand churches will become disused in the next ten years, 600 of which are Protestant (PKN), and 400 Catholic churches”. “The buildings could be reused as cultural or healthcare centres, while an alternative could be that of handing them over to other Christian communities, but in this case it is necessary to carefully consider if this option is worthwhile”. It is to be hoped they will not be used as Mosques, Eijk remarked, “the question was already addressed collegially by the bishops in the 1990s and the Bishops’ Conference decided that ecclesial buildings should not be reconverted into mosques”.