SANCTIFYING OFFICE

The Eucharist

“Through the sacrament of the Eucharist we are united with Jesus; thus, with God Himself and therefore with His infinite love. The Eucharist, Jesus Himself, is our pledge of eternal life and God’s eternal love. Anyone who, through the Eucharist, lets his love be supplemented by God’s love, can love God and his neighbor as Jesus has shown us.” So wrote the cardinal in a column published on the website of the Archdiocese of Utrecht.

Eijk affirms that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.”¹CCC 1324. From this source all our actions should flow. “If we serve God and our fellow human beings, then the Sunday Eucharist is embedded in our lives. Like the woman pouring a bottle of precious balm over the head or feet of Jesus in Bethany, may we present the best we have to our Lord, and may we serve the poor with the same generosity.”

In 2012, Eijk published a substantial pastoral letter on the Eucharist, reflecting on the value and significance of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.²Eijk’s pastoral letter followed up a pastoral-liturgical policy note from 2011 and builds on Eijk’s online columns (see www.aartsbisdom.nl/home/organisatie/aartsbisschop/columns/) and his 2010 pastoral letter Why Priests? These were then followed up by an additional letter responding to violations of the liturgical regulations laid down in canon law and in Redemptionis Sacramentum. In this letter, he wrote that “if you realize that Christ Himself is present in the Host, you cannot help but worship Him in the Host. In worship, we may dwell on the way Christ wants to be present in this world: He is there, as vulnerable as bread, with the surrender of love, in silence.” Eijk announced the Year of the Eucharist starting on December 1, 2019, in anticipation of which an additional pastoral letter on the Eucharist was published.

In response to criticism for celebrating Mass ad orientem — or, as someone said, “turning his back on the people” — Eijk said: “I do not celebrate Mass with my back to the people; I say it by turning my face toward Christ, toward the tabernacle, so that . . . together with the people, we are truly turned toward Christ. I no longer celebrate with my back turned to Christ but looking at Christ, who is present under the sacrament of the Eucharist in the tabernacle.”

Evangelization amid Secularization

Bold in facing reality, Eijk has distinguished himself from many prelates by directly addressing widespread secularization and loss of faith in the West. In an interview with Vatican Radio, he noted: “In the 1950s, ninety percent of Catholics still went to church every Sunday. Now, it’s only five percent.” In his 2015 message for Lent, he spoke about the need to close a vast number of churches in Holland, a reality that many have found painful. He wrote that, as a result of the mistakes made by the local Church after the Second Vatican Council and the actual abandonment of evangelization, the number of the faithful has drastically decreased in recent decades. In response to this situation, which sometimes leads to bitterness for the laity, the Cardinal has encouraged them to bring more people into the Catholic fold through evangelization and catechetical efforts. Similarly, seeing how few young people were engaging in the Church in Holland and abroad, in 2009 Eijk launched a worldwide Twitter campaign for vocations.³Tom McFeely, “Tweeting for Vocations,” National Catholic Register, 22 June 2009

As bishop of Groningen and then as archbishop in Utrecht, Eijk helped lead a number of pilgrimages to Lourdes. He noted: “Many seminarians have told me that they discovered their vocation in Lourdes. So you can see how much we owe to the Virgin Mary! Her intercession is incredibly fruitful.”

Devotion to Our Lady

Eijk has a marked devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. On May 13, 2017, the Cardinal dedicated all Dutch dioceses to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. During his homily, he spoke of Mary’s message in Fatima: “The first was a vision of hell and the call to prayer, repentance and penance to save souls and bring them to eternal salvation. The existence of hell was (and is) denied by many Christians and not, or hardly, raised by Christian proclaimers in preaching or catechesis. However, Mary’s grave warning must be taken seriously.” He wrote that Mary, though often misinterpreted, was a “powerful and firm woman.” The humility Mary speaks of in her Magnificat “is also not a false modesty, but a sense of reality with regard to the actual relationships we — as humans — have with God and fellow human beings.” “Mary consciously chooses to make herself humble and small, so that she can serve God and us. Because of our innate selfishness, we often think too highly of ourselves, causing us to give little heed for what God or fellow human beings have to say or ask us to do.” He added: “We also need this inner obedience in order to be able to hear what our fellow human beings deeply need and want. Without this inner obedience, it is impossible to serve God or our fellow man.” He said: “No one other than Mary can take us by the hand in prayer. She is the figure of the Church . . . She is our most beautiful example, including in prayer, and that is why it is so good to pray [the Rosary] in union with her.”

Speaking of his own vocation, and his episcopal motto, “Do Not Refuse the Work,” he explained:

The priest who helped me on the path of my vocation — and to whom I therefore owe eternal gratitude — told me: “Wim, you have the duty to hold on: it is the virtue of perseverance.” He told me that most people can’t do it: “If you hold on, you’ll see that you’ll win.”

He concluded by describing his own determination: “I will never forget that [advice]. Keep going. Continue. Continue to proclaim the faith. I am still in good spirits, I have an ardent faith, and I also always believe in the power of the Lord: He triumphs. Christus vincit. Not we, but He in us.”

Church Crisis

Cardinal Eijk is concerned about confusion in the Church and society that he attributes to an overload of information, but he believes it is important to continue to trust that the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church and that the faithful will later see what God meant by it. He also believes the current time is one of “great purification” for the Church. “The quantity of people who are believing is getting smaller, but the quality is getting higher. People are more believing, the people who go to Church are praying people,” he said in 2019.

Eijk has said he thinks the Second Vatican Council was necessary, that it was provided for by the Holy Spirit, and came “at the exact moment and was necessary in order to better explain certain truths of the Catholic faith and to adapt our pastoral care to the new social situation of the world.”

GOVERNING OFFICE

As a Young Bishop

Eijk’s first episcopal assignment (1999) was to the Diocese of Groningen.⁴Situated in the northern part of the Netherlands, it includes the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, and the Noordoostpolder part of the Flevoland province. With 115,000 Catholics, it was geographically the largest diocese in the Netherlands, but the smallest in terms of Catholic population.

Eijk had a rough start in Groningen. Just weeks after his appointment, the press went from being eager to find out who Eijk was, to attacking his views on sexual morality as “extremely conservative and inflexible.” These attacks relied substantially on unpublished notes of lectures given by Eijk, and the identity of their source was never revealed. Nonetheless, they were examined by the Dutch public prosecutors’ national expertise center for justice, to decide whether criminal prosecution based on discrimination against homosexuals should be initiated. (The prosecutor decided that there was no reason for a criminal investigation against Eijk.)⁵There was no criminal investigation because of discrimination against homosexuals since it was ruled that there was no intention to disregard the dignity of homosexuals and Eijk’s notes did not meet the so-called publicity requirement. Hence, Eijk’s moral theology lecture notes were ruled to fall outside the scope of criminal law.

In response to the commotion surrounding his appointment, Eijk clarified that the Catholic Church does not condemn anyone and that he would not either. He asserted, however, that “the Catholic Church has an ethical vision that is not always understood in today’s culture.”

Protests and Setbacks

Eijk’s consecration as bishop of Groningen took place as planned on November 6, 1999. It was, however, marked by protestors outside the church and important dignitaries refusing to attend the ceremony or the congratulatory reception afterward.

Eijk chose as his motto Noli Recusare Laborem, which he translates as: “Do not refuse the work or suffering and endeavors associated with the proclamation of the Christian faith according to the teachings of the Church in our time.” Eijk chose this variation on the words St. Martin of Tours used to address Christ shortly before his death, to expresses his desire to take on the same attitude of St. Martin to continue to work for Christ.

In a 2018 speech, Eijk mentioned a number of times when he particularly needed this attitude, including the four months between his appointment and his consecration in 1999, when Eijk received daily complaints and threats. “Some [even] tried to intimidate me in such a way as to try to get me to renounce my appointment as bishop.”

In January 2001, Eijk suffered a brain hemorrhage. After returning to work a few months later (mid 2002), he began experiencing severe facial pains, which again prevented him from working. Of this period in Eijk’s life, Bishop Van den Hende⁶Eijk’s vicar from 2000 to 2006. wrote that, for “Eijk, born and raised in Amsterdam, the church of the Diocese of Groningen was completely new. He worked very quickly by visiting parishes and meeting people from the entire diocese. Eijk showed great commitment and insight. His motto, Do Not Refuse the Work, suits him very well.”

Correcting Abuses, Starting Initiatives

Eijk’s work in the Groningen Diocese included correcting certain liberties introduced during the stewardship of the previous bishop in the 1960s and 1970s. These misguided practices included intercommunion between Catholics and Protestants, the ministry of the sacraments by pastoral workers, and the inordinate involvement of lay churchgoers in the organization of the liturgy. Eijk’s work in this regard was supported by younger priests and more conservative Catholics but was sharply opposed by some pastoral workers, older priests, liberal Catholics, and ecumenical and Protestant pastors.

Over the course of his eight years in the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden, Eijk undertook a number of initiatives that were well received overall.⁷Since 2005, the diocese has been called Groningen-Leeuwarden. These included initiatives aimed at young people, the establishment of a diocesan youth platform, and the organization of a diocesan altar-servers day. Additionally, Eijk undertook a large reorganization of the diocese. He abolished the deanery structure in lieu of the formation of vicariates. He relocated the diocesan bishop’s house to a location that also housed the diocesan office. And, in the course of his efforts, Eijk managed to make the Groningen-Leeuwarden Diocese financially healthy again.

Eijk encouraged believers to renew their prayer lives and undertook a pilgrimage to Rome with nine hundred members of his diocese in the context of the Year of St. Boniface, in 2004 (the 1,250th anniversary of the saint’s martyrdom). To replenish the number of priests in the diocese, Eijk invited the religious community Misionéros de Cristo Maestro from Colombia to establish two communities of priests and seminarians to serve the Groningen Diocese. For men considering the priesthood, Eijk also organized “convent retreats” where, in a climate of silence and prayer, questions regarding life and faith could be discussed. During his time as bishop, the number of priestly vocations increased.⁸Tjebbe T. De Jong, Katholiek leven in Noord-Nederland 1956-2006: vijftig jaar bisdom Groningen (Catholic Life in the Northern Netherlands 1956-2006: Fifty Years of the Diocese of Groningen) (Groningen: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2006), 136.

As the bishop responsible for education within the Dutch Bishops’ Conference, Eijk contributed to the merger that resulted in the establishment of the Vatican-recognized Faculty of Catholic Theology (now called Tilburg School of Catholic Theology [TSCT]) on January 1, 2007. As grand chancellor, Eijk acts as the representative of the Roman Catholic Church, and is obligated to preserve the integrity of the Christian message taught at the TSCT. He was also responsible for the reorganization that took place in wake of the merger. When a number of outspoken LGBT-supporting faculty members were not granted a position within the TSCT, Eijk was accused of abusing his powers in order to “purge” faculty members.

Archbishop of Utrecht

In December 2007, Pope Benedict XVI announced Eijk’s appointment as archbishop of Utrecht. Once again, a media circus ensued.This time, however, and mainly because of the financial reorganizations needed within the archdiocese and the success Eijk had had in reorganizing the Groningen-Leeuwarden Diocese, several well-respected bishops spoke out in Eijk’s support. The ruckus quickly subsided.

Eijk took the unusual step of refusing to serve (as he would have been expected to) as chair of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference. The reasons behind this included the enormous financial reorganization that awaited him in the archdiocese, the fact that he first wanted to concentrate on getting to know his new diocese, and his continuing administration of the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden.⁹This lasted for nearly a year, until September 2008, when Bishop De Korte became bishop of the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden. Bishop Van Luyn of the Rotterdam Diocese was then chosen to replace Cardinal Simonis as chair of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference. Upon Van Luyn being granted his resignation as bishop of Rotterdam, Eijk replaced Bishop Van Luyn as chair of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference in 2011. In 2016, however, after a term of five years, Eijk again relinquished his right to chair the Dutch Bishops’ Conference and was succeeded by his old vicar, then bishop of Rotterdam, Van den Hende.

Addressing Sexual Abuse

Shortly after his appointment as archbishop, Eijk had to deal with the challenges presented by past clerical sexual abuse. This took an enormous toll on him, as well as on the Dutch Catholic Church. After the cardinal put in place a special inquiry committee, a foundation was established to set up various programs to process and examine the thousands of complaints. In 2016, Eijk publicly apologized again on behalf of the Dutch Catholic Church for the abuse that had taken place and promised to report to the government on a yearly basis regarding the handling of new complaints.

Emphasis on Good Catechesis, Formation

During his time as bishop and archbishop, Eijk has emphasized the necessity of good catechesis, which he sees as especially needed as catechesis almost vanished from the Netherlands after Vatican II.

It is of great importance that Catholics dare to stand up for their Faith. After all, we live in a time when faith is often dismissed as irrelevant and believers as ignorant or even retarded. If we want to be effective missionaries in such difficult circumstances, we must proclaim loudly and clearly what our Faith is. This requires courage and also a thorough knowledge of the Faith. Only with this can we carry out the assignment that Jesus gave His disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). That missionary call applies to all of us and is still solid as a rock. A personal relationship with Jesus, a living prayer life, and good catechesis form the joint foundation of this.

Eijk has also emphasized parents’ duty to transmit the Faith to their children and to bring their children to Mass. In a recent interview, Eijk said:

We see a whole swarm of young people who also bring their children — these young people often have families — so the Mass is also very lively, because from time to time we see a child starting to run, scream, cry, or whatever — all this really doesn’t matter. But these children, even if they do not understand what is being said, already see something of the respect shown by their parents; for example, during the Eucharistic prayer, during the Consecration, when they remain in complete silence. Children see it, and what you see, what you learn from your parents as a child, you never forget. What we learn later, we sometimes forget. Hence, the very great importance of this period for learning the Faith.

Eijk has often stressed the importance of personal prayer, reflection on our actions, and, in particular, reading the Bible. He reiterated this in a homily at the symposium celebrating fifty years since Vatican II and the start of the Year of Faith: “The Council fathers of Vatican II wanted to go back to the sources of faith: the Bible and the life of the Church in the first centuries. That is why the Council has given a boost to the study of the Bible and to the use of the Bible by laymen, . . . in particular in the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum.”

Synodality

The Dutch cardinal sees synodality as “thinking about possibilities to create a Church in which every member of the community participates in the mission of the Church.” But he recognizes that some participating in the process don’t understand synodality, seeing it as an opportunity to change doctrine. This he puts down to the consequences of secularization and individualism.

TEACHING OFFICE

Steadfast Defender of Sexual Morality

 In the 1990s, Eijk taught moral theology and held fast to the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, bringing him some criticism. Just one year before he was appointed bishop of Groningen in 1999, homosexuals were allowed to enter into a so-called legal registered partnership in the Netherlands, which granted nearly identical civil legal rights as compared with civil marriage.¹⁰The Dutch Civil Code was amended on 21 December 2000 (with effect per 1 April 2001), allowing two people from the same or opposite sex to enter into a civil marriage.

Many homosexuals publicly protested against his appointment as bishop at the time. Eijk’s brain hemorrhage in 2001 may have been brought on by the commotion surrounding his earlier published views on homosexuality. He did not speak out when same-sex civil “marriage” was legalized in 2001. On the publication of a midterm review for the 2014 Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which seemed remarkably mild regarding homosexuality, Eijk held a press conference to clarify that the midterm review was just that, a report of “what has been said and thus can also be the opinion of the minority.” Eijk emphasized that the opinion of the majority — including Pope Francis — was not to deviate from Church teaching. Eijk reiterated the need for pastoral care that is able to bring homosexuals to a gospel-based path of life. And about that path of life Eijk was also very clear: “Homosexuals must hold themselves to abstinence.”

Communion for Divorced and “Remarried” and Intercommunion

In a 2015 essay, Eijk elaborated on marital and sexual morality and said that the “question of whether divorced and civilly ‘remarried’ persons can receive Communion is intrinsically joined to other questions of marital and sexual morality.” As to the principal question, Eijk stated: “In the 1970s, various theologians discussed this problem, without there being any precise pronouncement in this regard by the Magisterium of the Church. Nevertheless, there are loci theologici for this in Sacred Scripture and in the constant tradition of the Church that rule out the admission of the divorced and ‘remarried’ to Holy Communion.” Church teaching, he said, “has always been clear and decisive about the indissolubility of a ratified and consummated marriage and about the absolute prohibition of divorce followed by a new marriage.”

Eijk focused on the fundamental analogy between the relationship of Christ and the Church, on the one hand, and the relationship of two spouses on the other. In both relationships, the parties “mutually give and accept one another.”¹¹CIC/83 can. 1057 §2. “This gift is total, which also implies its definitive and therefore irrevocable character. The totality of the reciprocal gift of the spouses implies that it includes both the spiritual and the material dimension — not merely on the level of intention or emotion, but also encompasses the physical level, including sexual relations.” In this respect, Eijk underlined the importance of a correct, nondualist anthropology that considers the physical dimension, too, as being intrinsic to the human person.

In a 2015 essay, Eijk emphasized that those who are divorced and civilly “remarried” stand guilty of the sin of adultery and so have lost “the grace of justification already received and [are] unworthy to receive Communion, unless [they have] repented of the sin, confessed it, and no longer [commit] it.”¹²Aymans, Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage. He noted that Catholics are not obligated to receive Holy Communion in every Eucharistic celebration.¹³Except for the celebrating priest. Eijk, Living with Christ. The person desiring to receive Holy Communion must be in the state whereby he may receive the graces given in the sacrament.

Eijk has explained the fundamental reason why a divorced and “remarried” person cannot receive Communion, saying, “the love of spouses is taken up into the charity of Christ Himself, that is, into the reciprocal giving between Him and the Church. The mutual gift between Christ and the Church is made present in the Eucharist, through which we share more intensely in this gift, that is, in His suffering, death, and Resurrection. Adultery — and therefore also a divorce followed by a new civil marriage — violates the totality of the reciprocal gift between spouses at the spiritual, emotional, and physical level and, consequently, is incompatible with the total, reciprocal gift between Christ and the Church, to which the gift of the spouses is analogous and into which it should be taken up.”

Eijk received considerable international attention after he published an open letter in May 2018 in which he stated that Pope Francis needed to give clarity on intercommunion — a matter some had linked to the ambiguities over civilly “remarried” divorcees receiving Holy Communion. Eijk wrote that the pontiff’s failure to give German bishops proper directives, based on the clear doctrine and practice of the Church, indicated a drift toward apostasy from the truth and, quoting the Catechism, possibly a sign and precursor of the End Times.

Criticism of Pope Francis

At the end of the May 2018 open letter, Eijk firmly criticized Pope Francis and other bishops for such ambiguity, inferring that it may be a sign of the End Times. “Observing that the bishops and, above all, the Successor of Peter fail to maintain and transmit faithfully and in unity the deposit of faith contained in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, I cannot help but think of Article 675 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” Eijk wrote, before quoting the article which talks about “final trial” of man and the “mystery of iniquity.”¹⁴The Catechism passage reads: “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.”

Humanae Vitae

Eijk applied the same analogy to the use of contraceptives: “The argument against the use of contraceptives is that their obstruction of the gift of maternity and the gift of paternity through the conjugal act makes the spouses’ reciprocal gift and therefore the totality of the gift itself incomplete at the physical level.” In a lecture about Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical Humanae Vitae, Eijk clarified that this encyclical, once regarded as a bone of contention, is nowadays “increasingly recognized as a prophetic document” (see his further comments on contraception below).

“The inalienable dignity of the human person, created by God in His image, in which natural moral law should be rooted, ought also to be the foundation of human laws,” Eijk stated in another interview. “As soon as the civil law offers an opening, however minimal, to an act that violates the dignity of the human person, there will be a risk of undermining all respect for this dignity.”

Contraception

In the Netherlands, many laws that violate the dignity of the human person came into effect starting in the 1960s. Eijk wrote that “after the introduction of hormonal contraception in 1964, the problem of unwanted pregnancies arose, for which procured abortion was prescribed as a remedy.”

The majority of young women use the pill starting at age 13-14 through the initiative of their parents, who are afraid that their daughters will get pregnant. Thus, Holland remains very proud of having relatively few adolescent pregnancies. This situation also generates a problem with the formation of youth, because the widespread use of the pill at such a young age does not help with the formation of the virtue of chastity, that is, the integration of impulses and sexual feelings into a mutual total gift of self which is done in marriage, or in a celibate life.

Catholics in the Public Square

Eijk has noted that “some judgments of the European Court of Human Rights make it more difficult for individuals to openly express their Christian views on a number of ethical issues. The same also happens with countries that want to take Christian principles into account in their legislation but are blocked by judgments from the court.” Eijk stressed, however, that “it is not the ‘one Europe’ as such that is the culprit, but the absence of ideals, values, and norms, which also has an effect on legislation and case law.”

When asked if he agrees that it seems many Catholics involved in politics may have forgotten the so-called “nonnegotiable principles” such as the defense of life and the natural family, Eijk firstly referred to paragraphs 73 and 74 of John Paul II’s 1995 Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, which permits Catholic politicians under certain conditions to vote for a law, even if they are dealing with an intrinsically unjust law, in an attempt to prevent the acceptance of a still more permissive law. However, Eijk said, “It may be asked whether they have truly followed all of the conditions as mentioned in Evangelium Vitae and if their vote may truly be interpreted as a contribution to the common good.” He added: “Apart from the fact that many Catholic politicians today may be less effectively prepared to dialogue on nonnegotiable principles in order to arrive at an ethically justifiable compromise, I fear that many of them no longer even see these things as nonnegotiable.” Eijk underscored that “human laws must correspond to the natural moral law, which safeguards the dignity of the person and which derives from the order which God has given to His creation.”

Upholding the Right to Life

Regarding the dignity of persons, Eijk has continuously spoken out against abortion, stating that it is an “intrinsic evil.”¹⁵Willem Jacobus Cardinal Eijk, “Chapter IV: Abortion and the Ethical Status of the Embryo,” Katholieke Stichting Medische Ethiek, 23 March 1994 . With the acceptance of abortion, the boundary has been broken, which is indicated by the fundamental norm that human persons cannot be degraded to an object of use. Once this hurdle has been taken, it is no longer clear why that would not be permitted in other situations. It is clear that genuine human dignity begins with respect for the intrinsic dignity of the unborn. . . . Holy Scripture makes it clear that life is a gift from the Creator, which is under His special protection because man is created in God’s image and likeness. Life not only a gift but also a task: it is the fundamental ‘talent’ that is needed to develop our other talents for the benefit of the Kingdom of God.”¹⁶Willem Jacobus Cardinal Eijk, “Chapter IV: Abortion and the Ethical Status of the Embryo,” Katholieke Stichting Medische Ethiek, 23 March 1994

Since his days as a young doctor, Eijk has strongly opposed euthanasia (which later came to include the so-called Groningen Protocol and assisted suicide).¹⁷An agreement between neonatologists and the attorney for the city of Groningen, according to which a doctor who ended the life of a handicapped newborn baby would not be able to be prosecuted, provided that he had respected a series of cautionary requests. From this local protocol, a regulation was created at the national level for the suppression of life of handicapped newborn children. In October 2016, the Dutch government announced that it wanted to develop a new law that would make assisted suicide — not necessarily by a doctor — possible for people who are not suffering from any kind of psychiatric or somatic illness, but who are of the opinion that, due to feelings of loneliness, old age, or a reduced mobility, their life is “accomplished,” that is, it no longer has any sense in being lived and thus may be ended. Eijk earned his 1987 medical Ph.D. with a dissertation about euthanasia and has since written numerous publications on the issue, including the very thorough 2010 Manual of Catholic Medical Ethics.¹⁸W.J. Eijk and L.J.M. Hendriks, Handboek katholieke medische ethiek: verantwoorde gezondheidszorg vanuit katholiek perspectief (Almere: Parthenon, 2010). English edition: W.J. Eijk, and M.R. Berg. Manual of Catholic Medical Ethics: Responsible Healthcare from a Catholic Perspective (Ballarat: Connor Court Publishing, 2014). The manual provides a comprehensive Catholic overview of the major topics encountered in today’s medical practice. Eijk, along with his coauthors, explains how the Church’s position on the aforementioned issues is just and why opposing views do not do justice to human dignity.

In September 2020, Eijk said the Netherlands shows that once euthanasia is legalized, safeguards are slowly but inevitably abandoned. In 2022, he criticized two members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, of which he is also a member, for publicly urging support for assisted suicide as a tactic to prevent the legalization of voluntary euthanasia in Italy. He argued that there argued that there is “no significant moral difference” between medically assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, and so such a tactic would “simply and automatically pave the way for legalizing euthanasia.”

Cardinal Eijk has spoken out strongly against gender theory, saying exposing its errors is “of the utmost urgency” because it undermines the roles of mothers, fathers, and married spouses, impairs the biological relationship between parents and children, and harms the ability to share the Church’s teachings about God as a Holy Trinity. Eijk believes it sets the world “against the Christian faith,” is an ideology rooted in “radical feminism,” and is being spread under the term “gender equality.” He also sees it as linked to contraception.

In 2022, he said extreme forms of gender theory have become so influential that a papal encyclical should address the topic, also because the Church has “not said much about” gender theory in general. In 2017, he made a similar call, but said he did not necessarily see an encyclical as the only way to address the issue, and suggested an instruction from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith could also be useful.

In 2016, Eijk spoke out against the Netherlands becoming one of the first countries in the world to authorize cultivating in-vitro embryos for research purposes. He stressed the ethical concerns over such a move, and the value of human life from conception onwards, underlining his stance against biomedical practices that may endanger life.

Opposition to Same-Sex Blessings

In September 2022, Cardinal Eijk criticized the Flemish bishops’ decision to introduce blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. He argued that such practices undermine Church teachings on marriage and sexual ethics. He emphasized that allowing blessings for same-sex couples could lead to a devaluation of blessings and that it contradicts the Church’s stance on the morality of same-sex relationships.

In January 2024, Eijk, along with other Dutch bishops, offered a cautious response to Vatican guidance on blessings, one less enthusiastic than those of their immediate neighbors in Western Europe. In comments to Vatican journalist Diane Montagna that month, Eijk said the Dutch bishops never write anything that would contradict the Holy See, and stressed that they already allow blessings of individuals living in irregular relationships, but never the blessing of the relationship as such. He said the Dutch bishops’ statement was clear, even if not explicitly so, that “an irregular relationship goes against God’s intentions with the creation of man and woman and that of marriage and therefore cannot and should not be blessed.”

His own policy, made clear in a 2022 book,¹⁹The book is on marital morality (De band van de liefde, Utrecht, Kokboekencentrum, 2022, pp. 290-291 and 379-382; a Polish translation of this was published in December 2023: Więź MiƗości, Krakow, Wydawnictwo Esprit, 2023, pp. 373-374 and 492-496 makes clear “with theological arguments” why he believes irregular relationships, including those of a same-sex nature or those of people divorced and civilly “remarried,” “cannot be blessed, because they are relationships that are contrary to God’s order of creation.”

Upholding Church’s Teaching on Marriage

In October 2022, Eijk published The Bond of Love (De band van der liefde), an extensive work that contains an expert explanation of the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage and sexual morality.

In the book, Eijk stresses, among other teachings, that marriage reflects the relationship between God and humanity, and that man and woman in marriage “complement each other and together they can realize reproduction of life.”

The purpose of marriage includes both reproduction and mutual support. He adds that while the Catholic Church previously emphasized reproduction more strongly, now there is also focus on “mutual support between men and women.” However, he maintains that “reproduction, the passing on of life, is included in the mutual self-giving of man and woman.”

He also discusses homosexual relationships, stressing that these are considered “unnatural and morally evil.” He also rejects same-sex ‘marriages’ and blessings. “You cannot bless a morally evil act,” he writes. “The sun of God’s grace does not shine upon the path of sin.” Eijk emphasizes that homosexual couples cannot give themselves completely to each other because “There cannot be total self-surrender without the possibility of sexual reproduction.”

The cardinal argues that the Church should show respect and empathy to homosexual individuals while maintaining its doctrinal position.

In response to pressure from within by some in the Church to change the Catechism to remove the words that homosexuality is “intrinsically disordered,” Cardinal Eijk said in 2021 that although “one could perhaps try to find a formulation that will be better understood by people nowadays,” he personally saw “no need to modify the present formulation.”

Same-sex acts are “intrinsically evil,” he said, along with “all sexual acts which are not marital acts and are not open to the gift of motherhood and fatherhood.” This is according to Holy Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium and therefore “unchangeable,” he added. To “withhold the truth” on God’s created order and the natural moral law by changing the language would not be “an act of charity,” he said.

 Priestly Celibacy

 Eijk often received the suggestion to solve the “problem” of the limited number of Dutch priests by abolishing celibacy for priests. In his 2010 pastoral letter Why Priests?, Eijk explained that “there is much discussion in the Church in our country about sacred ministry: what can a clergyman do that a pastoral worker cannot? Why can men be admitted to the ordinations [viz., of the diaconate and the priesthood] and women not? Why does a priest have to live celibate? In all these discussions, the content and meaning of the priesthood are often hidden in the background.” In his letter, Eijk invited his readers to “view priests through eyes of faith, not focusing on what is or is not allowed, but to think about questions such as: Why do we need priests? What is the purpose of the priesthood? Why would one become a priest?”

 With reference to the Congregation for the Clergy’s document The Priest and the Third Christian Millennium and John Paul II’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, Eijk explained in his letter why celibacy is inseparable from the priesthood. In a 2018 interview, Eijk explicitly stated: “With [the implementation of ‘viri probati’], priestly celibacy would be lost, [and with it], a splendid and fruitful centuries-long tradition of the Latin Church.”²⁰Viri probati refers to the debated proposal to allow married men “of proven character” to be ordained to the priesthood.

Priestly Formation and Vocations

Cardinal Eijk has shown himself to be committed to the formation and education of priests and future Church leaders, immersing himself in the work of Ariens Institute, the house of priestly formation in the archdiocese of Utrecht.

During most of Cardinal Eijk’s tenure as Archbishop of Utrecht (from 2010 to the latest available statistics in 2022), the number of diocesan priests has fallen from 214 to 117; religious priests have fallen from 211 to 183; male religious have dropped from 320 to 283, and female religious from 697 to 540. Although the numbers have shown an overall decrease, they have mostly remained stable since 2014, despite the collapse of the faith in the Netherlands and closure of churches.

Women’s Ordination

Although the issue of women’s ordination took up a lot of oxygen (at least in the media) at the 2023-2024 Synod on Synodality in Rome, Cardinal Eijk regards it as a topic in its death throes that is no longer relevant to young people seeking to encounter Christ in the Catholic Church. In his homily for a priestly ordination in November 2024, Cardinal Eijk said:

“We see something blossoming in the archdiocese recently. There are churches where 16 years ago I met a group of grey heads who saw this conservative archbishop coming at least with mild horror. In those same churches, especially in the cities, I now meet fervent believers and praying young people and families with children. Over half come without a walker. You just fall off your chair in amazement. These young people do not come to discuss the ordination of women, because that is a topic from the 1960s that no longer interests them at all. They come to pray. They come to strengthen the presence of Christ in their hearts, the foundation of their lives. And whatever they do, they freely propagate the Christian faith through social media or other digital avenues. As a result, especially in cities, every year more young people between, say, twenty and fifty come to ask for Baptism and/or Confirmation and also First Holy Communion.”

Migrants and Refugees

 In their 2015 Advent letter dealing with the refugee situation in Europe, Dutch bishops stated their concerns regarding the “refugee crisis” and the impact that large groups of refugees would have on their society. Such a challenge required “a realistic answer from those who bear political responsibility, from the churches and from civil society organizations, [who] together bear responsibility for living together well and for the general welfare.”

They expressed opposition to all forms of discrimination and xenophobia, because it disregards and violates the deepest dignity of every person, and stressed that Christians have a duty to help refugees, “to lend our fellow human beings in need a helping hand.” They said refugees “may be asked to cooperate” so their arrival “does not disrupt our society,” and that government should “develop and enforce a fair asylum policy that serves and promotes the common good, in particular cohesion in our society.”

In a December 2018 interview, Eijk repeated that “migrants, in turn, have obligations toward the well-being of the country they seek refuge in and they must respect universal values, such as the inviolability of the human person.” He stressed the importance of Europeans’ being hospitable, “but we also have to take into account what a society can handle.” Regarding economic migrants, Eijk said “the government is not obliged to grant a residence permit to every migrant, certainly not to economic migrants. They are necessary for the well-being of their country of origin.”

Eijk has commented relatively little on the refugee crisis, other than to say that refugees may not disrupt Dutch society. During a lecture titled “Blood Witnesses: Martyrdom through the Ages” celebrating the fact that St. Boniface came to the Netherlands thirteen hundred years ago, Eijk was asked about the difference between Christian and Muslim martyrs. Eijk explained that there is a fundamental difference between “Islamic martyrdom,” which “is an active thing; killing others. With Christians it’s about suffering.” “Boniface called on his companions not to pick up arms, to remain faithful as a Christian and to die that way.”

Threat of Secularization, Hyper-individualism

From numerous letters, lectures, interviews, and teachings, it seems that Eijk sees current secularization and “hyper-individualism” as the most potent threats to Christian life and values. The issues of how to “combat” secularization and how to evangelize a post-Christian society are his main focal points. In a 2012 column, for example, Eijk wrote that the majority in Western Europe has become spiritually blind in the last fifty years and that it does not seem to matter anymore what one believes. “In addition to this culture, evangelizing is also complicated by the idea that faith and reason exclude each other and the misconception that religions in themselves are the causes of violence, discord and war.”

Eijk stressed that what we believe impacts not only our image of God but also our understanding of human dignity and our view of the world. “The Triune God loves every human being without exception.” Eijk has underlined that “for Muslims, for example, God is one Person, a being who maintains distance from the world, who, supremely powerful, as absolute ruler, thrones in absolute loneliness above the world. It is precisely the belief in one God in Three Persons that makes God so approachable to us and is the most characteristic of our Christian faith.”

In July 2023, Cardinal Eijk spoke about facing opposition out of love for Christ. He stressed that at a time when subjectivism prevails, it is important to remain steadfast in faith and bear witness to Christian values. On a separate occasion in the same year, he encouraged believers to bear courageous witness to their faith. He argued that when people dare to witness, the Holy Spirit speaks through them.

Coronavirus

Eijk was a strong proponent of the COVID-19 vaccines, arguing on the basis of his own medical training that they were “effective in controlling” the disease and “protecting one’s own life and that of others with only proportionate side effects (serious collateral effects, in any case, are rare to very rare).” He made the comments in October 2021 before the damage caused by the vaccines had become more widely known.

Furthermore, contrary to some Church leaders such as Bishop Athanasius Schneider, he did not see the vaccines as being morally problematic as they had only a “very remote cooperation in abortion” in their production.

“Cooperation in evil is sometimes unavoidable or even obliged, however contradictory that may seem to be,” Eijk told a conferencein Rome. “This is the consequence of living in a world disfigured by original sin.”

In fact, he argued, because the vaccines seemed to effectively protect the lives of others, “one could perhaps conclude that getting vaccinated is demanded by justice” and is a “moral obligation.”

But he was also a firm believer that COVID-19 vaccines should have been voluntary and that compulsory vaccination was “not ethically justified.

“You have to respect conscientious objection in the way that you’re not allowed to force people to get vaccinated,” he said.

Eijk was nevertheless a supporter of the “Green Pass” requirement in Italy and some other countries which required a pass to use some services and enter certain places, as long as it offered “an alternative to overcome the problem of the conscientious objection against the vaccines.” He said this would be the case if frequent tests were also allowed as a substitute, but only if they were offered free of charge.

The Last Things

Eijk noted that “many are concerned by all the signs of climate change” and “people are frightened by the notion of the end of the world.” “But people fail to see we are already in the final age of the world. And because we do not know when the end of the world will come, we are called to be vigilant.”

In a recent interview, Eijk emphasized: “The first secret, about hell, well, I think it’s really a secret that remains highly relevant for our time. That’s our duty: to make sure, because we are in charge of announcing the Catholic Faith, that people don’t end up in hell, and to warn them about it. In this regard, we can sincerely ask ourselves if we do this often enough. Because when we talk about hell, that often arouses many emotions. Yet I think we really have a duty to do so.”

In the same interview, Eijk also spoke of the doctrine of universal salvation: “Yes, it is true that Christ wants to save all men, but you have to open yourself up to it. So there is a condition attached to it, and salvation is therefore not automatic. You really have to choose Christ.”

REORGANIZING THE CHURCH IN A POST-CHRISTIAN SOCIETY

Cardinal Eijk has had to make hard decisions, which presiding over a church in steep decline requires of its leaders.

In a time when fewer than five percent of Dutch who call themselves Catholic still go to Mass, Eijk has been forced to close many churches.

When he became archbishop in 2008, the archdiocese had 312 parish churches. In 2014 Eijk predicted that when he turns seventy-five in 2028, there will be 20 parishes with one or two churches left in each. In a 2018 interview, Eijk stated that even that is too optimistic. Regarding the entirety of the Netherlands, Eijk indicated in 2013 that he expected that in 2025 two-thirds of all Dutch churches would be closed.

These grim prognoses have provoked much opposition. Petitions have been sent to both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, urging them to halt Eijk’s reorganization efforts. Indeed, both liberal and conservative Catholics have heavily criticized Eijk. His response has been: “Sometimes you can keep things together only by being decisive. I don’t have an extremely popular message. But I’m not out for the popularity prize.”

“It pains me when a church has to close,” he has said. “But I said it before: in the shrinking process that the Church is going through, we must not cling to buildings; that is not our salvation. Our Faith is linked not to a building but to God.” Eijk even planned to close his own cathedral in Utrecht, but mainly thanks to a lobby by the parishioners it was recently announced that a financial plan has been made that will allow the cathedral to stay open.

Eijk has explained many times that reorganization is the only option.

We see parish finances drowning in red numbers. You have to see it this way: 10 percent of the parishes are rich, 10 percent of the parishes are simply bankrupt. The maintenance costs of the churches are too high for them. Even if they cut back their entire pastoral team, they still have a financial shortage. The other 80 percent isn’t yet bankrupt but doesn’t have great numbers either. We have arranged a meeting between the diocese staff and the parish boards. There were conversations with our economist. The question was: What can you keep open in the long term? What do we need to do to ensure “black numbers”? It is said that the bishop is always talking about money. But money is a condition for pastoral care. If you cannot pay your bills, both the first and second reading will be read by the bailiff.

Eijk steadily maintains that, although there is a shortage of priests within the Dutch church and the duties of the remaining priests have consequently increased, priestly duties will not be assigned to those not ordained. Neither that shortage, nor parishioner preferences, nor the desire to create a lower threshold to get people to attend Mass is ever a valid ground for deviation from the liturgy.

Because of the dearth of priests in the Netherlands, the Eucharist is, unfortunately, no longer being celebrated in every church every Sunday. Eijk stated that it is a “great loss if believers do not regularly hear and pray along with the prayers prayed when the Eucharist is celebrated,” which makes “it more difficult to discover the richness of the Eucharist.”

Although Eijk has said that closing churches “cuts through [his] soul,” he looks at the bright side of the massive reorganization within the archdiocese. “It may seem contradictory, but closing (superfluous) churches is building the Church of the future.” “For example, seven declining religious communities with little church attendance and hardly any activities, have been transformed into one lively religious community with high church attendance and new initiatives.”

Eijk says that he seeks to emulate the attitude of St. Martin. “I had to proceed to pastoral and financial reorganization in my current archdiocese, where in the first year I had to dismiss two-thirds of the curia staff in order to prevent the archdiocese from going bankrupt. The reorganizations have, however, also led to the emergence of new pastoral initiatives: the strengthening of the position of the priest, a new pastoral youth program, and — thanks to the, albeit modest, growth in the number of seminarians — I was able to reopen the archdiocese’s seminary in 2014.”²¹Eijk had been forced to close the seminary in 2010.

Eijk has reminded the faithful “‘not [to] let our hearts become troubled or dull.’ We must remember these words every day, because no matter how big or small the Church becomes, the Lord is with us. And He will probably surprise us! Remember the words of Jesus in Luke (18:27): ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’”

“It is true that the numbers [viz., of churchgoers] are decreasing, but I sometimes say: the quantity is constantly decreasing, but the quality is increasing. The community has become small, but it is also a stronger community. I am still in good spirits, I have an ardent faith, and I also always believe in the power of the Lord: He triumphs. Christus vincit. Not we, but He in us.”

In conclusion, Eijk says of himself:

I sometimes compare a bishop today to a meteorologist who is concerned with climate change. And the religious climate in the Netherlands is deteriorating; a real storm front is approaching. A bishop has many duties, but pretending good weather is coming is not part of that. My warning about the shrinking church, however, does not mean passively waiting for the future. Certainly not. In these individualistic times we must show that a church community has added value. But at the same time, we have to prepare for what is possible and what is partly already there. I say possible, because sometimes a storm diminishes at the last moment or takes a different track. But we also have to take into account the possibility that we will be affected.

In a 2022 book interview titled God Is Alive in Holland, Eijk shares his views on the state of Catholicism in the Netherlands and its rapid decline to become among the most de-Christianized countries of Europe and the West. The Church in the country is portrayed today as a hated, small, and persecuted minority, but as with the persecution of the early Church, it displays seeds of hope and the possibility of a small but zealous Catholic community emerging. In a January 2024 interview, Cardinal Eijk said he believed that the future of the Church in Holland will involve “creative communities” and that he had embarked on a program of converting churches into “missionary parishes.”

• 1
  CCC 1324.
• 2
  Eijk’s pastoral letter followed up a pastoral-liturgical policy note from 2011 and builds on Eijk’s online columns (see www.aartsbisdom.nl/home/organisatie/aartsbisschop/columns/) and his 2010 pastoral letter Why Priests? These were then followed up by an additional letter responding to violations of the liturgical regulations laid down in canon law and in Redemptionis Sacramentum.
• 3
  Tom McFeely, “Tweeting for Vocations,” National Catholic Register, 22 June 2009
• 4
  Situated in the northern part of the Netherlands, it includes the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, and the Noordoostpolder part of the Flevoland province.
• 5
  There was no criminal investigation because of discrimination against homosexuals since it was ruled that there was no intention to disregard the dignity of homosexuals and Eijk’s notes did not meet the so-called publicity requirement. Hence, Eijk’s moral theology lecture notes were ruled to fall outside the scope of criminal law.
• 6
  Eijk’s vicar from 2000 to 2006.
• 7
  Since 2005, the diocese has been called Groningen-Leeuwarden.
• 8
  Tjebbe T. De Jong, Katholiek leven in Noord-Nederland 1956-2006: vijftig jaar bisdom Groningen (Catholic Life in the Northern Netherlands 1956-2006: Fifty Years of the Diocese of Groningen) (Groningen: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2006), 136.
• 9
  This lasted for nearly a year, until September 2008, when Bishop De Korte became bishop of the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden. Bishop Van Luyn of the Rotterdam Diocese was then chosen to replace Cardinal Simonis as chair of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference. Upon Van Luyn being granted his resignation as bishop of Rotterdam, Eijk replaced Bishop Van Luyn as chair of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference in 2011. In 2016, however, after a term of five years, Eijk again relinquished his right to chair the Dutch Bishops’ Conference and was succeeded by his old vicar, then bishop of Rotterdam, Van den Hende.
• 10
  The Dutch Civil Code was amended on 21 December 2000 (with effect per 1 April 2001), allowing two people from the same or opposite sex to enter into a civil marriage.
• 11
  CIC/83 can. 1057 §2.
• 12
  Aymans, Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage.
• 13
  Except for the celebrating priest. Eijk, Living with Christ.
• 14
  The Catechism passage reads: “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.”
• 15
  Willem Jacobus Cardinal Eijk, “Chapter IV: Abortion and the Ethical Status of the Embryo,” Katholieke Stichting Medische Ethiek, 23 March 1994
• 16
  Willem Jacobus Cardinal Eijk, “Chapter IV: Abortion and the Ethical Status of the Embryo,” Katholieke Stichting Medische Ethiek, 23 March 1994
• 17
  An agreement between neonatologists and the attorney for the city of Groningen, according to which a doctor who ended the life of a handicapped newborn baby would not be able to be prosecuted, provided that he had respected a series of cautionary requests. From this local protocol, a regulation was created at the national level for the suppression of life of handicapped newborn children. In October 2016, the Dutch government announced that it wanted to develop a new law that would make assisted suicide — not necessarily by a doctor — possible for people who are not suffering from any kind of psychiatric or somatic illness, but who are of the opinion that, due to feelings of loneliness, old age, or a reduced mobility, their life is “accomplished,” that is, it no longer has any sense in being lived and thus may be ended.
• 18
  W.J. Eijk and L.J.M. Hendriks, Handboek katholieke medische ethiek: verantwoorde gezondheidszorg vanuit katholiek perspectief (Almere: Parthenon, 2010). English edition: W.J. Eijk, and M.R. Berg. Manual of Catholic Medical Ethics: Responsible Healthcare from a Catholic Perspective (Ballarat: Connor Court Publishing, 2014).
• 19
  The book is on marital morality (De band van de liefde, Utrecht, Kokboekencentrum, 2022, pp. 290-291 and 379-382; a Polish translation of this was published in December 2023: Więź MiƗości, Krakow, Wydawnictwo Esprit, 2023, pp. 373-374 and 492-496
• 20
  Viri probati refers to the debated proposal to allow married men “of proven character” to be ordained to the priesthood.
• 21
  Eijk had been forced to close the seminary in 2010.