According to both the Vatican and the Dutch Bishops’ Conference, Radboud University is still Catholic. This was said by cardinal Wim Eijk and bishop Gerard de Korte during a press conference after the ad limina visit to Rome.

According to the Holy See (the papal government) and the Dutch bishops, Radboud University is still Catholic. This was confirmed by cardinal Wim Eijk and bishop Gerard de Korte during a press conference after the ad limina visit to Rome. Last week during a work visit, they talked to Pope Francis, and to the new prefect of dicastery for education and culture, the Portuguese cardinal, and professor of Bible science José Calaça de Mendonça, among other things.

Lingering conflict

The statement that the university is still Catholic, is extraordinary news. In the autumn of 2020, the Dutch bishops withdrew the predicate ‘Catholic’ from the Catholic University Foundation (SKU), the then supervisory board of Radboud University and the Radboudumc. Reason for this was a lingering conflict between both parties about the nominations of SKU members.

‘Rome sees Radboud University as something that belongs to the authority of the Holy Father’

‘We had the right to terminate our relationship with the SKU, but Rome sees Radboud University as something that belongs to the authority of the Holy Father’, said De Korte during the press conference yesterday. ‘In that sense, Radboud University is still a Catholic university.’

‘Great service’

During the press conference, cardinal Eijk emphasised that local bishop Gerard de Korte is in contact with the Rector Magnificus of Radboud University, Han van Krieken, about this. ‘We hope to have a great service in the autumn of 2023, during the centenary of the university’, said De Korte.

The fact that representatives of the Holy See were saddened by the decision of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference, was already known. Radboud University was still named as a Catholic university in the Papal Yearbook of 2022. And in a four-page article in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera last September, journalist Marco Ventura wrote that there were rumours saying that the dicastery for culture and education did not agree with the decision of the Dutch bishops to withdraw the Catholic predicate.

Translated by Jan Scholten