Development agency breaks ties with Dutch bishops

February 11, 2010

Solidaridad, a Dutch development agency that works in Latin America, has broken all ties with the Dutch bishops after the bishops’ conference sought assurance that the agency’s aid programs not conflict with the teaching of the Church.

“The bishops are demanding the final say on how to spend the money, and their policies are straitjacketed by orthodoxy,” said Solidaridad director Nico Roozen. “The Church’s morality creates major problems in areas such as combatting HIV and suitable population politics. High Church opinions on the position of women in church and society and on homosexuality are limiting factors for emancipation. A certain matter of allowing now seems to be history. All the rules are once more strongly enforced.”

Solidaridad describes itself as “a joint venture by Dutch churches, and its board includes representatives of the Catholic Church, Protestant Church in the Netherlands and of several smaller churches such as the Old Catholic Church, the Mennonite Church and the Remonstrant Brotherhood.” Six of the organization’s 11 board members are representatives of the Catholic Church, according to a recent annual report.

 

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Further information:

• Ignore Dutch bishops, aid group says (Radio Netherlands)
• Solidaridad, but not with the Church (In Caelo et in Terra)
• Annual report 2008 (Solidaridad)