Catholicism in the Netherlands

The Catholic Church in the Netherlands (Dutch: rooms-katholiek kerkgenootschap in Nederland (RKK)), is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope. The Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht, currently Willem Jacobus Eijk, is the Primate of the Netherlands.

Although the number of Catholics in the Netherlands has decreased significantly in recent decades, the Catholic Church is today the largest religious group in the Netherlands. Once known as a Protestant country, in 2012 the Netherlands was only 10 percent Dutch Protestant (down from 60 percent in the early 20th century; defections primarily due to rising unaffiliation). There are an estimated 3.943 million Catholics (31 December 2014) in the Netherlands, 23.3 percent of the population down from more than 40 percent in 1970's. The Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands has suffered a membership loss of 589,500 members between 2003 (4,532,000 pers. / 27.9% overall population) and 2013 (3,943,000 pers. / 23.3% overall population), The number of Catholics in the Netherlands continues to decrease, roughly by half a percent annually, as do the number of Protestants. Muslims, however, continue to increase and are currently 6% of the population.

Sunday church attendance by Catholics has decreased in recent decades to less than 200,000 or 1.2 percent of the Dutch population in 2006. More recent numbers for Sunday church attendance have not been published (with the exception of the diocese of Roermond), although press releases have mentioned a further decline since 2006.

In December 2011 a report was published by Wim Deetman, a former Dutch minister of education, detailing widespread child abuse within the Catholic Church in the Netherlands. 1,800 instances of abuse "by clergy or volunteers within Dutch Catholic dioceses" were reported to have occurred since 1945.

Notable Dutch Catholics include Pope Adrian VI, Ruud Lubbers, Henry of Gorkum, Hadewijch, Cornelius Loos, Jakob Middendorp, Hieronymus Bosch, Piet de Jong, Jan Harmenszoon Krul, Dries van Agt, Jan Steen, Casimir Ubaghs, Maxime Verhagen, and Joan Albert Ban.

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