The Rosary prayer is still alive in the Netherlands

As bishops, last year we took the initiative – now completed – to set up a Year of the Rosary. During this year all the bishops of the Netherlands, including my two auxiliary bishops, took part: we went to pray the Rosary with the faithful in various places in our dioceses, before or after Mass, as part of adoration or in other ways. I did it, for example, in the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Raalte: a huge, fantastically beautiful church, it looks like a cathedral. We were to say the Rosary at 6:30 p.m., followed by Mass at 7 p.m., on the occasion of All Saints’ Day. I thought to myself: such a solemn weekday mass in the Netherlands – it is a solemnity that we have long celebrated on the nearest Sunday and not on weekdays, and which has now been rescheduled to its exact date – how many faithful will it attract? Well, it really wasn’t bad at all. And what really surprised me, and even made me feel good, is that at 6:30 p.m., most of the faithful were already present, and that they actively said the Rosary… And it was quite a big group. Therefore, the Rosary prayer is still alive in the Netherlands.

I also devoted an editorial to the Rosary in our diocesan magazine. I wrote: Don’t you know how to pray? Well, just pick up your rosary. It is a very simple prayer. Everyone can learn it (because, let us be honest, it cannot even be said that every Dutch Catholic knows the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary, even if many do still know them). But it is also a profound and meditative prayer. When we pray the whole Rosary, all the mysteries… In truth, we look at the life of Jesus, we contemplate it, we consider it with the eyes of Mary, which gives great added value to this meditation on the life of Jesus – with her own eyes, with her own help, with her intercession.

Cardinal Willem Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht since 2007 and Cardinal since 2012

Interview for Life Site News, May 15, 2019