The strategy of surprise” “

“Your prayer and your witness, your contribution to the Church and to society, are indispensable for our community of believing Catholics”. With these words, addressed to members of religious orders in an open letter, the Dutch bishops thanked the religious communities present in the country for their constant dedication. The occasion was furnished by “open convent” day, celebrated on Sunday 23 March. The event forms part of the campaign “Catholics with heart and soul”, launched in Holland in February. Throughout 2003 this will be marked by a succession of activities to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the return of the ecclesiastical hierarchy to the country. We discussed some of the more striking initiatives of Catholics in Holland (five million, of whom 11,500 religious, two thirds of them nuns) with Jan Willem Wits , of the Press Office of the Dutch episcopate. How is the face of the Dutch Catholic community changing? “As in many other countries, in Holland too we have been faced by a period of secularisation since the 1960s. For this reason numerous Catholics do not express their own religious convictions and seem to have lost their faith. In recent years, however, some positive changes have been registered; people are increasingly talking of Catholics who openly ‘manifest’ their faith. It goes without saying that the Church is encouraging this phenomenon, and the campaign ‘Catholics with heart and soul’ is a sign of that. The component of ‘pride’ implies that we know and perceive the fact of having something to offer to society and are not afraid to communicate it. What’s ‘surprising’ is that we are trying to find creative and original ways of doing so. Many people, especially the young, think that the Church is antediluvian, slow in its reaction to change. That’s why we are presenting ourselves in an unusual manner”. For example you’ve ‘invented’ an sms service… “One of the examples of our ‘strategy of surprise’ is what we have called ‘short meditation service’, an sms service. The season of Lent is an invitation to make three commitments: to reflect, pray and donate. The sms service combines them all, in a modern manner: everyday at midday (hour of the Angelus) participants receive a verse of the Gospel on their mobile phone; in this way we try to inspire in them a moment of meditation and reflection on the Gospel. The cost of this service is 0.70 Euro per day. Half this sum goes to an organization for aid to the Third World. In this way the participants make a contribution to a good cause and in exchange receive food for their mind. This service has been followed up by another, which has proved a big hit: that of inserting Catholic tunes as the ring tones of cell phones. Such evergreens as Ave Maria can be downloaded (see the website www.catholictunes.nl). Unfortunately, in spite of the enthusiastic reactions of Catholics abroad to both these initiatives, it’s possible to use them only in Holland”. What about “open convent” day? “According to our data, some 25,000 people visited one of the hundred convents open to the public just on one day, the 23 March. Almost 60,000, on the other hand, have compiled the ‘cloistertest’, a kind of informal test on the spiritual tradition and the religious orders present in the country, ever since it was inserted on the Internet”. Fact File Following the Protestant Reformation, the Dutch government had imposed such punitive restrictions on the ecclesiastical province as to induce the Vatican to place the territory under its own direct control, as a mission land. Only in 1853, under the pontificate of Pius IX, was the Church hierarchy finally able to return to Holland, after William II had removed the ban on accepting novices in the communities in 1840. So “1853 was a turning point for the history of many religious orders and congregations”, maintain the bishops, since “one of the most visible results of this process of spiritual growth and Catholic emancipation was an explosive growth in the number of candidates to the religious life”.