Dutch diocese abandons Sunday Mass regulation

On October 11, 2020, visitors attend church at the Vitus Church in Hilversum, Netherlands. / Photograph by JEROEN JUMELET/ANP/AFP courtesy of Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, September 6, 2022, 10 a.m. (CNA).

A Dutch diocese has announced the it will no longer conduct Sunday Mass in its parishes.

In a letter, the Diocese of Roermond in the south of the Netherlands advised parishes that Mass would be held only every other week.

Due to a lack of priests and a desire to save energy expenses, the diocese announced that it would no longer require every parish to have at least one Sunday service.

Vicar General René Maessen noted in a letter dated August 2022, “Additionally, in some areas, so few people partake in the Eucharist that it is much more stimulating to bring together believers from different parishes for one joint eucharistic service.”

The diocese noted on its website, “Financial considerations may also factor into the decision to discontinue weekly Eucharist services in favor of, for instance, a biweekly service,”

These included the high cost of gas and electricity in particular. Maessen stated, “Although financial considerations should never be the primary factor in pastoral issues, they must be ignored either.”

Maessen assured Catholics that the choice was not made lightly.

Dutch News reports that there are 3,7 million Catholics in the Netherlands, but just 4% attend Mass regularly. Roermond’s diocese is one of two with a majority Catholic population.