The thawed relationship between Jesuit order Society of Jesus and John Paul is a major accomplishment of Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, a low-key and unflappable native of the Netherlands.

For centuries, the Society of Jesus has been considered both a blessing and a bane to the Roman Catholic Church. The order has been expelled at various times by the rulers of France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Russia, Japan; the Papacy itself once suppressed the organization for 41 years. In modern…

“The New Testament is the testimony of believing people,” says the liberal theologian Schillebeeckx. “What they are saying is not history but expressions of their belief in Jesus as Christ.”

In bygone centuries, an unorthodox vision like Martin Scorsese’s might have prompted heresy trials and burnings at the stake. Perhaps even a quick crusade mounted by ragtag armies. In the summer of 1988, the preferred methods of resistance are picket lines, economic boycotts and angry appearances on talk shows. If…

Edith Stein, born a Jew, converted to Roman Catholicism and became Sister Teresa. This week Pope John Paul II will beatify Sister Teresa, but Edith Stein’s family disagree.

The Gestapo came for Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross at the Carmelite convent in Echt, the Netherlands, on Aug. 2, 1942. She and her older sister Rosa, who was living at the convent, were given five minutes to pack. Within a week the two women were at the gates…

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…

The song Popie Jopie is but one indication of the hostility that will greet Pope John Paul II when he arrives in the NL. The purpose of the Pope’s visit is to defend orthodox church teachings.

“My name is Popie Jopie./ I happily travel ’round,/ And always when I arrive/ I spontaneously kiss the ground . . .” So runs last week’s fifth- most-popular song on Holland’s hit parade. The mild piece of satire contains a punster’s slap at Pope John Paul II: popie jopie is…

A difficult challenge to Rome on the autonomy issue has arisen in The Netherlands as Bishops have ignored Vatican dictates. Pope John Paul will visit the Netherlands next May.

On a gray and misty morning late last week, Pope John Paul II arrived at a $ Rome airport in a Mercedes-Benz limousine, quietly bade farewell to Vatican aides and boarded an Alitalia DC-10. Once again the Pope was airborne, setting forth this time on a strenuous twelve-day “pilgrimage of…

The Vatican has quietly decided to take no action against Schillebeeckx, at least for now, thus signaling that there is still some lee way for liberal thinking in the era of Pope John Paul II.

Rome drops a tricky case

In two pre-Christmas shots heard round the theological world, the Vatican in 1979 summoned Father Edward Schillebeeckx from The Netherlands for questioning as a possible heretic and then declared that West Germany’s Father Hans Küng had no license to practice as a “Catholic” theologian. Since…

At the synod with Dutch bishops in Rome, John Paul had spoken often and, it was obvious, decisively, to persuade the Dutch bishops to enforce Vatican policy in their rebellious land.

Bishops back Vatican line

For each of the 15 days of deliberations, a white-robed Pope John Paul II sat Sphinxlike, jotting down notes but never saying a word. Or so went the official version of the extraordinary synod of Dutch bishops at the Vatican, an account intended to play…

Pope John Paul II confronts squabbling Dutch bishops, and summoning the bishops Johannes Gijsen, militantly conservative bishop of Roermond, and Cardinal Willebrands to Rome.

Pope John Paul II confronts squabbling Dutch bishops

Outside the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, radical Italian protesters last week waved placards declaring SYNOD EQUALS REPRESSION, WOJTYLA GO HOME and WOJTYLA EQUALS KHOMEINI. The gibes at John Paul II were signs of the tension surrounding a meeting beginning inside the palace. In…

On the death of Pope John Paul I, Dutch Cardinal Willebrands said it was a disaster. He had a feeling that something fresh was going to happen to his church.

“How deep are the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How inscrutable his judgments, how unsearchable his ways!” St. Paul’s words rang out across St. Peter’s Square in the genial, high-pitched voice of John Paul I on that happy day last month, Sept. 3, when he was…

The belief that Jesus Christ was both “true God and true man” has been the bedrock of Catholic orthodoxy for more than 15 centuries. Theologians have been at odds about this dogma.

Germany’s Hans Küng again challenges the Vatican

The belief that Jesus Christ was both “true God and true man” has been the bedrock of Catholic orthodoxy for more than 15 centuries. Yet over the past decade some Roman Catholic theologians have been at odds with the church hierarchy about this…

In Holland there was general relief when Catholics learned that Willebrands, not a right-winger, was appointed as new archbishop by Pope Paul to replace the now retiring Cardinal Alfrink.

During his 15 years on the Vatican’s ecumenism staff, Johannes Gerardus Maria Willebrands has been a skilled, tireless builder of bridges between Roman Catholics and other Christians. Now he faces the equally delicate task of building bridges within his own church. Even while Willebrands retains the presidency of the…

Cardinal Alfrink returned from Rome after explaining about a controversial high school catechism course. 50 Dutch theologians are convinced, but the Vatican thinks otherwise.

Of all the beneficiaries of the Second Vatican Council, Roman Catholic theologians were among the most blest. Before the Council, most of them seemed to be little more than academic valets to the Popes, limited to being apologists for the fixed doctrinal formulations laid down by the 16th century Council…

The Vatican seems determined that the progressive wing of the church can be curbed. The Dutch church has been forced to cancel a national pastoral council meeting set for October.

The Vatican seems determined to use the Roman Catholic Church of The Netherlands as a test case to prove that the progressive wing of the church can be curbed. What is more, it seems to be winning. First there was the appointment of conservative Msgr. Adrianus Simonis to the see…

In the six months new appointed bishop Gijsen sacked his deputy bishop and two vicar generals. Laying down a strict policy against birth control and abortion.

To the easygoing Roman Catholic burghers of the Dutch diocese of Roermond, their new bishop came on like a thunderclap. Last January, when Johannes Mathias Gijsen, 39, was named to the see from the rectorate of an old-folks home, hardly anyone knew who he was. They soon found out. In…