The Roman Catholic Party Netherlands (in Dutch: ''Rooms Katholieke Partij Nederland'', RKPN) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

catholic 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 ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

. The RKPN played a marginal role in Dutch politics.

Party History

The RKPN was founded by former members of the

Catholic People's Party The Catholic People's Party ( nl, Katholieke Volkspartij, KVP) was a Catholic Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1945 as a continuation of the Roman Catholic State Party, which was a continuation of ...

who were upset with what they saw as the liberal course of their party. In reaction, they founded the RKPN. In the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

the party got one seat, which was taken by

Klaas Beuker Klaas is a Dutch male given and surname. It is the Dutch short form of Nicholas, a Greek name ultimately meaning ''victory of the people''. A traditionally common name in the Netherlands, its popularity declined some 20-fold since 1950.

, who also was the party's

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

. In 1974 a conflict between Beuker and the party board, caused him to continue as an independent MP. The party unsuccessfully entered in the 1977 elections.

Ideology & Issues

The RKPN was an orthodox catholic

testimonial party A testimonial party () is a political party that focuses on its principles, instead of adapting them to local or temporal issues in the pursuit of coalition government participation. In the Netherlands It is a peculiar phenomenon in the Netherlan ...

in contrast to the pragmatic and liberal course of the Catholic People's Party. The party took the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...

as their main perspective. The RKPN followed the conservative course of

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

. The RKPN wanted to strengthen

catholic schools Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syst ...

and youth work. It wanted to government to act against

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

and

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

Support & Leadership

This table shows the RKPN's results in elections to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

and

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, as well as the party's political leadership: the fractievoorzitter, is the chair of the parliamentary party and the lijsttrekker is the party's top candidate in the general election, these posts are normally taken by the party's leader.

Electorate

The party was mainly supported by Catholics who followed more conservative bishops like Simonis.

International Comparison

The RKPN, a testimonial party can best be compared to the Dutch orthodox Protestant SGP. Internationally it is comparable to small orthodox catholic parties like the Irish

Christian Solidarity Party The Christian Solidarity Party ( ga, Comhar Críostaí) was a minor political party in the Republic of Ireland. It had no representation at local or national level. Founded in 1991 as the Christian Principles Party, it stood candidates in the 1 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roman Catholic Party Of The Netherlands Catholic political parties Defunct political parties in the Netherlands Confessional parties in the Netherlands Defunct Christian political parties Conservative parties in the Netherlands