In a world where what was certain is no longer certain, Max de Bree (28) and Anouk Snelders (34) have come to their faith step by step. They grew up with the idea that anything is possible. Work hard, earn money, consume. House, tree, animal. And that in a safe world, without war.
De Bree, who grew up in a non-believing environment in Beverwijk, was always looking for “something higher” or “something more”. As an adolescent he sought it in punk, in politics. He was rebellious, against religion. During corona times, as a student at the conservatory in Amsterdam, he came across Christian ideas through YouTube videos about psychology and philosophy. At that time he got a tattoo with a reference to a Bible verse. When the musician moved to Amsterdam last November, he dared to go to mass for the first time.
Catholic church De Krijtberg in Amsterdam.
Photo Zara Nor
Snelders came into contact with spirituality as a child, her mother had an affinity with the New Age movement. In recent years she has immersed herself in the spiritual movements of Hermetic philosophy, Rosicrucianism and Kabbalah, but she also strove for perfection with her start-up in food technology. Everything seemed under control, until last September she was diagnosed with a benign nerve tumor and her father barely survived a heart attack.
If his recovery went well, she decided she would be baptized. And so it will happen.
This weekend, Snelders, like fellow religious student De Bree, will be baptized in the Catholic church De Krijtberg in Amsterdam, during the Easter wake on Saturday night. They talk about it in the adjacent parsonage, where they followed the faith course for ten weeks. Halfway through they were presented as disciples of the faith during a mass on Ash Wednesday, followed by baptism this weekend.
A baptismal bowl and a baptismal spoon.
Photo Zara Nor
‘Centuries-old source of norms and values’
They are not the only adults to be baptized in the Catholic Church. There are more and more of these in the Netherlands: there were still 275 in 2020, in 2024 the number was 515 – the most recent figures. More children are still being baptized, in 2024 there would be more than six thousand. Last year and this year, the number of newcomers to the Catholic Church continued to rise, according to an inventory of its dioceses for NRC. The majority of them are baptized at Easter. The rest join the church without baptism, for example because they were baptized as children but were subsequently not active in the church.
Young adults have a very open attitude towards religion, notes Pastor René Wilmink of the Sint Joris parish in Eindhoven. They want to investigate it seriously, he says in the pastoral center. About twenty people will be baptized in his parish at Easter this year. All in their twenties, except for one in their thirties.
Twenty years ago it was ‘sporadic’ that people came to church because they wanted to become Christians, says Wilmink. Now this is happening more and more often and no longer reluctantly. “They have often already completed a long route, via the internet, TikTok or YouTube.” People are attracted to religion, he says. “It also indicates a kind of new openness.”
Max de Bree.
Photo Zara Nor
Young adults are less dismissive of religion than previous generations, sees researcher Joris Kregting from Radboud University in Nijmegen, who has collected figures on the number of baptisms in recent years. Most young adults will not join the church and why some do is currently being investigated, according to Kregting. For the time being, young adults seem to be attracted to an “age-old source of norms and values,” says Kregting. They are occasionally pushed in this direction by social media.
‘Exploration of the Church’
The journey to the actual baptism, next weekend during the Easter Vigil, is not short. For months, catechumens, as the prospective baptized are called, have been taught about the faith in meetings. What does it mean when you believe? What do you believe in then? What are the sacraments? Pastor Wilmink calls it “the exploration of the church, of the community in which you are accepted.”
De Bree recognizes that feeling. For a long time, faith was an “intellectual exercise”, safe in his attic room. In conversations with other catechumens during the meetings leading up to baptism, they supplemented each other about their experience of faith and everything that comes with it. Such as how their environment reacts to it. After his confession of faith, De Bree texted his mother that he would be baptized. At first she was surprised, then she thought: this is right. Snelders learned to accept that not everyone understands her conversion.
Anouk Snelders in De Krijtberg Catholic Church in the center of Amsterdam.
Photo Zara Nor
Saturday is the day. The fact that Pastor Wilmink can baptize adults has something very special for him. “You are privileged. In any case, we are allowed to spend time with people at special pivotal moments in their lives. When a couple gets married, when a child is baptized. But especially with adults, with whom you spend a long time and see development, that is very nice. And that I can baptize them, that they become a full part of the church… that does something to you.”
De Bree has “a bit of stage fright” before his baptism, but he looks forward to “living more in the service of others.” He wants to put his own interests first. Snelders feels “butterflies” about the baptism. She hopes that her sense of control and performance pressure can make way for trust and acceptance.
