‘Vatican II was used as a departure, not a foundation’
Bishop Hendriks of Amsterdam remembers the Netherlands’ post-conciliar period
In the years following the Second Vatican Council, the Netherlands experienced more upheaval than just about any country in the world, at least as some historians view it.
The country’s bishops relinquished oversight of Catholic education, shut down all seminaries, and agreed to take part in a controversial national “pastoral council,” a body meant to co…