About 550 concerned Catholics from West Friesland and the Noordkop will travel in buses to Haarlem’s Bavo Cathedral tomorrow to make their voices heard. They are very concerned about the future of ‘their’ churches, now that the diocese wants to close the doors of almost 100 churches. “It is an attempt to come together. We want this policy to be overturned.”
The church as the beating heart of a village. Sunday celebrations, singing evenings, weddings and funerals: the church was a social meeting place for centuries. Then full banks, now empty buildings. Because due to the decline in church attendance, there are hangovers dark clouds over Catholicismnow that the diocese wants to divest many North Holland churches.
The Haarlem-Amsterdam diocese, which includes 164 churches, set off a bomb in ‘church country’ last year. Over the next five to ten years, the diocese wants to work towards a situation in which several churches have to function as a ‘centre function’ (28) or ‘support point’ (37). This means that almost 100 church buildings will be forced to close their doors.
A lot of unrest
This course causes a lot of unrest. “We think that by closing churches, religious life in a community disappears,” says Jaap Braakman of the Laurentius parish in Hoogkarspel. “The idea is that all parishioners will then transfer to the only church that remains open in a region.”
But there is great doubt whether this also works in practice. To prevent this scenario, an action committee of concerned parishioners has been formed to make their voices heard at the diocese.
A ‘silent journey’
The announced closures of churches are bothering parishioners so much that they… to the barricades and distribute a petition. A ‘silent procession’ is planned for Sunday, leading to the Haarlem Bavo Cathedral of Bishop Jan Hendriks. “We present the bishop with the petition, which has been signed more than 1,400 times. We have a musical gathering and we hold a tour around the cathedral,” says Braakman.
He expects an attendance of 550 churchgoers. That day they drive in a convoy to the diocese with ten coaches. Those present include parishioners from Waarland, Tuitjenhorn, Heerhugowaard and De Goorn. It should be a symbolic protest where they walk around the cathedral seven times, following the example of the Bible story about Joshua in Jericho. “The walls don’t have to collapse, as happened in the Bible story, but we do want this policy to fall,” he says.
They demand control over ‘their’ churches. “It is not so much a protest movement, we want to work together. It is an attempt to come together, and not to oppose each other.”
West Friesland breathes Catholicism, says Jan-Willem Wit of the North Holland diocese. He understands the concerns of the action committee. “The church is a meeting place for many. It is of course very painful that it will end there.”
The diocese is prepared to receive the concerned parishioners in Haarlem. “We all see the problem of church closures, it is a shared concern. We would rather not close churches at all. For us, these are also painful choices that have to be made. But sometimes it is no different.”
The path we have taken did not happen overnight, says Wit. Declining church attendance and high maintenance costs force the Catholic churches in West Friesland to look to the future. The diocese ultimately wants to move towards a model in which a small number of churches fulfill a central function. “If we do nothing, we will be left empty-handed.”