Pope John Paul II visited the Netherlands and received a remarkably unfriendly reception. There were street riots and also barbed comments from his hosts.

When Pope John Paul II takes to the road, crowds are almost always huge and the mood celebratory. The Pontiff’s magical spell, however, was abruptly snapped in the Netherlands last week during his 26th foreign journey. The Dutch, with 5.6 million Roman Catholics among 14.5 million citizens, accorded John Paul…