There is a hierarchy of importance in many things, and the agenda of the Pope is no exception. This week the reforms of the Vatican bank and the next meeting of the Council of Cardinals take up much energy and time, and that has consequences for the ad limina visit of the Dutch bishops, due to start tomorrow.
The audience of the bishops with Pope Francis, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been moved forward to tomorrow morning (oddly enough at the same time as, per later reports, the Pope would be meeting with the Israeli prime minister… we’ll have to see how that turns out). That means that the high point of the visit, at least in the eyes of many on the outside, will take place right at the start. But of course that’s not the whole picture.
Bar three (Bishops Liesen, de Jong and van Burgsteden, who had prior engagements and will arrive in Rome later), all bishops began the ad limina visit with a Holy Mass at the Church of the Frisians, the Dutch home base in Rome. Cardinal Eijk, who was the main celebrant, did not discuss the ad limina in his homily. Instead, he spoke about Advent, which began today. And in the great scheme of things, Advent easily trumps any ad limina visit, of course.
The first coming of Christ, the cardinal said, was not that different from His second coming, likened to that as a thief in the night, as described in the Gospel reading of today (Matt. 24:37-44). “The first coming of Christ took place when He, the Son of God, became man. For centuries, the Jewish people had been looking forward to Him as the prophesied Messiah. But, when He was born as a man, no one was expecting it. And no one was there to welcome Him. Neither the Roman Emperor Augustus, nor his people’s elite was aware of the great event which was taking place in a lonely stable near Bethlehem. Some angels advertised Him, leading to a group of shepherds coming to visit and adore Him. And three Magi came from the East to adore Him as well. And that was, for the moment, that.”
Several bishops, among them Utrecht’s auxiliaries Herman Woorts and Theodorus Hoogenboom (pictured above), attended Pope Francis’ Angelus in St. Peter’s Square.
Another change in the schedule of the visit is the cancellation of all personal audiences of the bishops with the Pope. Originally, Pope Francis had considered these, in part because of the relatively small size of the bishops’ conference (13 members). But, pressing engagements on the Holy Father’s part have necessitated the cancellation of these audiences. Earlier, Bishop Gerard de Korte of Groningen-Leeuwarden had said he was looking forward to meeting with Pope Francis: “I haven’t decided exactly what I am going to say. Anyway, I think it will be very interesting to meet him. There are amazing stories about this Pope. We have never met yet.”
The ad limina has also caused a small ripple effect in social media. The Diocese of Roermond has been sharing photos and stories on Facebook of what its two bishops, Ordinary Frans Wiertz (at right, being interviewed) and auxiliary Everard de Jong, have done and seen in Rome; the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden has become active on Twitter; and Haarlem-Amsterdam’s auxiliary Bishop Jan Hendriks is blogging from Rome.
Photo credits: [1] [2] RKK – Christian van der Heijden, [3] Bisdom Roermond on Facebook
