Pro-Homosexual Bishop, Enemy of Latin Mass, Closes 70 Churches in the Netherands
In 2026, he employed a full-time economist to oversee the closure of church buildings. "It's an urgent issue. The financial figures leave us with no other option," Bishop Van den Hout said.
He believes that the downward spiral will not stop after the closing of the seventy churches. "At the moment, the diocese has 280 church buildings. Around the turn of the century, we had 360. Occasionally, a church would be closed in the previous century, but until 1981, new ones were still being built."
Monsignor Van den Hout added that presiding over the Eucharist in a church "requires a certain number of people — not ten people in a church that can hold several hundred".
"Given the current financial situation and declining church attendance, it is inevitable that we will designate one centrally located church building for services in many places. Church buildings in surrounding villages will then be sold off."
Just Another Pro-Homosexual Bishop
Monsignor Van den Hout was appointed to Groningen in April 2017 and to Roermond in June 2024. In August 2024, he admitted to MariaBode.nl that he himself had "blessed" homosexual concubines "on several occasions in the past.” Van den Hout agreed with Francis’ homosexual pamphlet Fiducia supplicans that “such pastoral blessings should be permitted”.
In 2018, after ‘Amoris Laetitia’, he was asked about Communion for adulterers. Bishop Van den Hout of Groningen said that he has never refused communion and doesn’t plan to do so.
In June 2024, MariaBode.nl called Monsignor Van den Hout “a liberal bishop" who is “not fond of the old Latin Mass”. The Bishop forbade a diocesan priest from celebrating the Roman Mass monthly in Veenendaal.
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