Conversation with a Young Dutch Convert
here are not many places on the planet with a bleaker outlook for
the Church than in the Netherlands.
Once a center of a vibrant Catholic culture, in the 1960s and 1970s Dutch avant-garde clerics embraced ‘The Spirit of Vatican II’ with a vengeance. The Dutch Catechism, published in 1966 by radical Dominican priest Edward Schillebeeckx, attempted a compilation of Church teachings into a single volume. It had gaping holes in key areas. The Catechism sold millions of copies in multiple languages and actually became the basis for numerous religious textbooks around the world, infecting catechesis everywhere. A Vatican commission found major deficiencies, but the damage had already been done.
DUTCH DOMINICAN PRIEST Edward Schillebeeckx (1979) authored a widely-read ‘Dutch Catechism’ which truncated the teachings of the Church. (Right.)
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