DNK: Documentatieblad voor de Nederlandse kerkgeschiedenis na 1800 - Volume 43, Nummer 93, 2020

This article analyses the preparations and the implementation of the 27th International Eucharistic Congress, held at Amsterdam in 1924. After an introduction on the (negative) image of this congress in Dutch historiography, on the person of de papal legate (the Dutch cardinal Willem van Rossum CSSR), and on the phenomenon of the ‘Eucharistic Congresses’ and its organizing committee, the author analyses the forces pro and contra the organization of such a Congress in Amsterdam. The initiative was taken by some ultramontane clergy and laypeople, gathered around the revival of the devotion of the Amsterdam Eucharistic Miracle (1345). The bishop involved, mgr. A. Callier of Harlem, felt little of inviting the organizing committee to choose for Amsterdam, and also the (Roman Catholic) Prime Minister Ruijs de Beerenbrouck kept aloof, fearing a revival of protestant antipapism. So in advance it was already clear that the government and queen Wilhelmina would avoid every diplomatic presence – quit different as was the case at similar congresses in other countries. Besides, a grand procession through the Amsterdam streets was impossible because of the then still prevailing prohibition of public religious processions. The most important ceremonies thus were held in the Amsterdam soccer stadium. The Congress strengthened the feeling of unity of the ‘common’ Catholics with the Dutch cardinal as their shared national icon, but on the other hand it worsened the relations between the Dutch episcopate and the Prime Minister, and their ‘man in Rome’. In the end the Eucharistic Congress had no antipapistic consequences, and only limited political consequences, thanks to quite a lot of informal negotiations before and during the Congress. It nevertheless played a role on the background, when the government decided in 1925 to close the Dutch embassy at the Vatican.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 evoked a lot of enthusiasm within revolutionary groups in the Netherlands. Here they saw for the first time in history the building up of a real socialist society. One of these was the League of Christian-Socialists (Bond van Christen-Socialisten), that was founded in 1907. Though the League welcomed the Russian Revolution there was also discussion, especially about the use of violence by the Bolsheviks. Three different groups came into being: those who rejected the use of violence (main representatives Truus Kruyt-Hogerzeil and Bart de Ligt), those who judged the use of violence in this situation acceptable (Anke van der Vlies), and the group that considered itself as Christian Bolsheviks (John William Kruyt). Their views are described and also the close connection between Kruyt as Member of Parliament (1918-1922) and the Communist Party. The different views were a main factor in the disintegration of the League that was dissolved in 1921.

The ecumenical movement started at the time of the First World War and was molded by the nationalism that ignited this war. In 1914-1918 it became clear that the nations had become a hindrance for the churches. At first, internationalism seemed the answer to this problem, but in the 1920s and 1930s it turned out that internationalism still was too abstract, and nationalism was still too dominant. In the early 1920s W.A. Visser ’t Hooft was active in the international Christian student movement, where he learned the relevance of Christianity as an alternative for nationalism, and in the 1930s he explicitly chose for the church as an alternative for the nation. In order to make the church relevant over against nationalism and rising totalitarianism the national, liturgical and confessional differences between churches had to be overcome to enable the church to speak with one voice. This aim was not realized yet at the time of the Second World War, but the ecumenical movement encouraged churches to formulate its own identity and develop its own mission amidst nationalism and totalitarianism.

The Second World War, the Japanese military regime and the detention of Dutch Protestant and Catholic missionaries in prison camps had considerable consequences for the functioning of church life in Borneo, both within and outside the detention camps. These consequences constitute the theme of this article. Church life in the island continued to suffer some of these consequences beyond the end of the war.