The monastery bookshop in Wittem is well attended. Remarkably many non-believers are looking for a book about meaning there.
More than half of all Dutch people no longer believe in God, according to a research of the Social Cultural Planning Office (SCP). But spirituality has many faces, as they see in the pilgrimage site of Klooster Wittem.
Spiritual support
For the first time, there are more Dutch people who don’t believe than they do. Nevertheless, due to the corona crisis and the war in Ukraine, there is a need for spiritual support. That can be faith, but it doesn’t have to be.
On a Sunday, an average of a thousand visitors come in here. And that, according to owner Gerard Prickaerts of the bookshop in the former Gerarduskapel, is very telling.