Pope Lectures the Rebellious Dutch : Liberal Church, Resentful Jews a Challenge on 26th Trip

Against a background of death threats, boycotts and open hostility from many of the most rebellious Roman Catholics in Europe, Pope John Paul II politely but firmly lectured the liberal Dutch church Saturday on obedience to his authority.

At the outset of his first pastoral visit to the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium--John Paul’s 26th papal trip abroad--the pontiff directly confronted a major challenge that liberal Dutch Catholics have thrown at the Vatican, his power to appoint their bishops.

He also held out an olive branch to Netherlands Jews, whose lingering resentment over Vatican silence during the Holocaust of World War II led them to boycott the papal visit.

“How could we possibly forget . . . the tragic fate and the sacrifice of the many thousands of Jews,” he asked in his arrival speech at Eindhoven Airport. “We pray to their God who is also our God that the chosen people may live in peace and security.”

The Netherlands’ Jewish leaders had been invited to meet the Pope but said they would do so only if he agreed in advance to recognize the state of Israel, with which the Vatican has no formal diplomatic ties, and admit Vatican guilt for indifference to the plight of Jews during World War II. The church rejected both conditions.

When asked about death threat posters that appeared in parts of this country in advance of his visit, John Paul simply laughed with reporters on his papal plane and appeared utterly relaxed and unconcerned as he circulated amid a crowd of well-wishers at the airport.

But, sensitive to the threats and to threatened demonstrations during the Pope’s visit, security officials and church organizers arranged John Paul’s schedule so that he will not face large crowds in the open until his last full day here Tuesday, when he will conduct an open-air Mass at Beek Airport near Maastricht.

Saturday’s welcoming crowd at Eindhoven was carefully screened by some of the more than 10,000 police who have been assigned to protect the pontiff, and organizers said that it was much smaller than expected. The same relative indifference to the visit was evident in nearby S Hertogenbosch, where the streets traversed by the papal motorcade were only lightly lined with onlookers.

A bitter controversy over the Pope’s recent appointment of an ultraconservative bishop in liberal S Hertogenbosch, accustomed like the rest of the Dutch church to relative autonomy from Rome, prompted the pontiff’s call to obedience, although his exhortation was softened somewhat in delivery from the formal text that was released in advance by Vatican press officers.

Speaking slowly in Dutch at St. John’s Cathedral in S Hertogenbosch, John Paul reminded faithful Catholics that bishops “should be accepted” as “the church guides who must show the way.”

Describing his own role as the supreme authority responsible for appointing them, he said that “in the final analysis, the Pope has to take the decisions.”

In his delivery, the pontiff deleted several other lines, including one in which he complained “must he (the Pope) explain his choice?”

Dutch Catholics, many of whom espouse the most liberal ideas in world Catholicism, including marriage for priests, women in the priesthood, democratic administration of individual churches and independence from Rome, have been split over the papal choices of bishops here since John Paul began replacing moderate and liberal church leaders with conservatives of his own liking several years ago.

Many leading liberal Catholics declared in advance of the Pope’s visit that they would boycott his public appearances.

Polls conducted before the visit showed that a majority of the nation’s 5.6 million Catholics either were indifferent to or opposed his trip. On Wednesday, a disparate group of Catholic objectors, including gay priests, married priests, feminists and peace advocates, held a peaceful protest rally in The Hague.

Wall posters a few weeks ago offered a reward of 15,000 guilders (about $4,000) for anyone who “liquidates” the Pope, and other posters called for riots to protest the visit.

However, only one small demonstration was reported Saturday, not far from the headquarters of the visit here in Utrecht. A crowd of a few hundred youths dressed in punk-style garb burned an effigy of the Pope under the watchful eyes of the police.

At the time of the demonstration, John Paul was speaking in S Hertogenbosch about the limits of freedom.

“People may not be permitted to abuse freedom,” he said in what was interpreted by Vatican reporters as an oblique complaint against the liberals of Dutch Catholicism. “Experience shows . . . that freedom develops best if it keeps to the rules of morality and accepts the guidelines given by the shepherds (bishops) of God’s people.”

John Paul also chose the occasion of his controversial visit here to explain why he travels so often and so far. “In this age of easy travel, should the bishop of Rome not visit his brothers where they are working for the gospel?” he asked. “The aim of the apostolic visit is to preach the message of the Gospels, to promote unity and to stimulate the activities of the individual churches.

“I would very much like to visit you for longer and more privately, for friendship develops and grows when people really get to know one another. They always turn out to be different than first impressions might have suggested,” he said.

Later, the pontiff spoke to Catholic teachers and students on the importance of religious education and then traveled to The Hague to spend the night at the residence of the papal ambassador there.

The Pope will be back in Utrecht today to preside over a two-to-three-hour Mass before returning again to The Hague for the night. He will remain in the Netherlands until Thursday morning, when he flies to Luxembourg.