HALF OF ALL DUTCH PARISHES ARE CLOSED AND MORE TO CLOSE!

Catholic newspaper warned churches will continue to close in the Netherlands, where half of all Catholic parishes have already been dissolved amid plummeting church participation.

“It’s never good to panic, but there are grave concerns about the way things are going here,” said Peter Doorakkers, an editor at the Katholiek Nieuwsblad weekly.

“It’s been hoped people would draw the obvious conclusion – that if you want your church to stay open, you don’t just need to support it financially, you also have to attend it more. But if you look at the numbers at Mass now and average ages, it’s obvious more churches will close in the near future.”

The newspaper said the Catholic population of the Netherlands had fallen by a fifth in 15 years, with just 5% of the country’s 3.7 million registered Catholics still attending Mass, while 55% of parishes had closed.

However, it said research suggested Dutch society had not yet reached “peak secularisation” and warned that, with up to 80% of Church funds devoted to maintaining buildings, the “biggest wave of church closures” was still to come.

Katholiek Nieuwsblad said in an editorial it had hoped to show the disappearance of Catholic parishes had “far-reaching consequences” for local communities, but conceded that many former parish functions had instead been “effortlessly and silently taken over” by other social organisations. While some closures had been painful, most village communities had “recovered surprisingly quickly”.

However, its findings had “touched an open nerve”, prompting extensive responses from readers, the newspaper said.

PAT SAYS

55% of Dutch churches and parishes closed. That is a staggering figure.

We are always behind happenings in the Netherlands. We will soon see lots of churches being sold off in Ireland.

Currently there are 25 churches for sale by the Church of England.

As a Christian and a priest I regret the loss of faith.

But if course, especially in the case of the RCC it is the clergy who are to blame for peoples loss of faith with their financial and sexual corruption

And, of course, Hoolland and Ireland needed to be freed from the control of the clergy.

Ireland was priest ridden. There will eventually be as few priests in Ireland as there are corn rakes.

*Beautiful Message written in arabic language*

அரபு மொழியில் காணப்பட்ட
அற்புதமான மகாவாக்கியங்கள்.
لكن
تذكر ان ما تصنعه الْيوم لنف jbسك ستكسبه في الغد سالبا او موجبا
لكن تذكر أيضا ان الحياة عبر
قال تعالى
فَاعْتَبِرُوا يَا أُولِي الْأَبْصَارِ
وايضاً قال
فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ يَا أُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
A rich man looked through his window and saw a poor man picking something from his dustbin … He said, Thank GOD I’m not poor;

The poor man looked around and saw a naked man misbehaving on the street … He said, Thank GOD I’m not mad;

The mad man looked ahead and saw an ambulance carrying a patient … He said, Thank GOD am not sick;

Then a sick person in hospital saw a trolley taking a dead body to the mortuary … He said, Thank GOD I’m not dead;

Only a dead person cannot thank God;

Why don’t you thank GOD today for all your blessings and for the gift of life … for another beautiful day;

*What is LIFE*?
To understand life better, you have to go to 3 locations:

*1. Hospital*
*2. Prison*
*3. Cemetery*

At the Hospital, you will understand that nothing is more beautiful than HEALTH.

In the Prison, you’ll see that FREEDOM is the most precious thing

At the Cemetery, you will realize that life is worth nothing. The ground that we walk today will be our roof tomorrow.

Sad Truth* : We all come with *Nothing* and we will go with *Nothing* … Let us, therefore, remain humble and be thankful & grateful to God at all times for everything.

🙏🙏🙏