The Roman Catholic Diocese of

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

is a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of the

Latin Rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Description

It was erected on March 14, 1853, with Johannes van Hooydonk being made its first bishop. The current bishop is Johannes Wilhelmus Maria Liesen. The current cathedral is Saint Anthony of Padua (in Dutch: H. Antonius van Padua) located in the center of

. Its canonical territory consists of the province of

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

and part of the province of

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...

and is subdivided into 112 parishes. Former Bishops of the Diocese are: * Johannes van Hooydonk (1853 – 1867) * Johannes van Genk (1868 – 1874) * Henricus van Beek (1874-1884) * Petrus Leyten (1885 – 1914) * Pieter Hopmans (1914 – 1951) *

Jozef Baeten Jozef Baeten (born 8 April 1893 in Alphen) was a Dutch clergyman and bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Breda The Roman Catholic Diocese of Breda is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. Descriptio ...

(1951 – 1961) * Gerardus de Vet (1962 – 1967) * Hubertus Ernst (1967 – 1992) * Martinus Petrus Maria Muskens (1992 – 2007) *

Hans van den Hende Johannes Hermannes Jozefus (Hans) van den Hende ( Groningen, January 9, 1964) is a Dutch Roman Catholic clergyman. He was appointed bishop of the diocese of Breda on October 31, 2007. On 10 May 2011, pope Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of the ...

(2007 - 2011) * Johannes Wilhelmus Maria Liesen (2011–present) The Diocese numbers 136 secular and 159 religious priests and comprises 356 male and 1080 female religious. The number of church goers is nearly 25,000 or 2.2% of the population. During the sixties of the twentieth century, the relatively strong

demarcation Demarcation is the act of creating a boundary around a place or thing. Demarcation may also refer to: *Demarcation line, a temporary border between the countries *Demarcation problem, the question of which practices of doing science permit the re ...

between the Catholic south on one side and the

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

west and north on the other side of the Netherlands started to diminish. In the second half of the twentieth century a rapid secularization and strong loss of

religious affiliation Religious identity is a specific type of identity formation. Particularly, it is the sense of group membership to a religion and the importance of this group membership as it pertains to one's self-concept. Religious identity is not necessarily the ...

have taken place in North Brabant. In western North Brabant (

Diocese of Breda The Roman Catholic Diocese of Breda is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. Description It was erected on March 14, 1853, with Johannes van Hooydonk being made its first bishop. The current bishop is Joh ...

) is the number of people associating themselves with Catholicism strongly decreased, only 52 percent of the West Brabantians identify as Roman Catholic in 2006. Church attendance is low with only 1 percent of the West Brabantian population visiting churches. North Brabant is mostly

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

by tradition and still uses the term and certain traditions as a base for its cultural identity, though the vast majority of the population is now largely irreligious in practice. Research among Dutch Catholics in 2006 shows that only 27% of the Dutch Catholics can be regarded as a

theist Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with ''deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred to ...

, 55% as an ietsist /

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

and 17% as

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

.God in the Netherlands' (1996-2006), by Ronald Meester, G. Dekker,

References

External links

GCatholic.org
*http://www.ru.nl/kaski/virtuele_map/publicaties/ rapportnr. 550 *''Kerncijfers 2005 uit de kerkelijke statistiek van het Rooms-Katholiek Kerkgenootschap in Nederland'' {{Coord, 51.5875, N, 4.7774, E, source:wikidata, display=title

Religious organizations established in 1853 1853 establishments in the Netherlands Culture of North Brabant Culture of Zeeland

Description

See also

References

External links