CATHOLIC INFLUENCE IN HOLLAND

New Zealand Tablet, 15 December 1910, Page 2053

CATHOLIC INFLUENCE IN HOLLAND

_ Holland is a Protestant country; that is to say, the majority of its population professes the Reformed religion (says a writer in America). Side by side with 60 per cent, of Protestants, there are 35 per cent. Catholics. Nevertheless, the Protestants are divided into two great partiesthe Believers or Orthodox, and the Moderns. The Orthodox are again divided into many sections, of whom the Calvinists and Lutherans are the principal. The Moderns, on the contrary, are for the most part Rationalists, and have little or no belief.

The Orthodox Protestants strive to apply their religious principles to their political action, which results in their forming two political factions. One, the Anti-Revolution-ists, of whom Dr. Kuyper is the head, and the Free AntiRevolutionists, whose leader is Mr. Savornin Lohman. Like the Protestants, the Catholics make their principles affect their politics, so that both Catholics and Protestants find themselves in opposition to the anti-religious tendencies of the Liberals, who, on that point, are sustained by the Socialists. Nevertheless, each of the two Christian parties is too feeble independently of each other to make head against the Anti-Christians. This was particularly noticeable in the second half of the last century, when the fight was on against the Liberal School Law of 1857. Their helplessness made them see that the two Christian parties would be stronger if they stood by each other in electing Protestant or Catholic representatives, who would defend in Parliament the common interests of both sides.

Among the statesmen who devoted themselves most earnestly to bring about this coalition were Dr. Kuyper among the Protestants and Dr. Schaepman among the Catholics. Dr. Schaepman was a priest, and a member of the Lower House. He died but a few years ago. Nevertheless, their efforts to effect this coalition evoked a great deal of opposition among the Catholics. Their feeling in this matter was intelligible when we recall that the ancestors of these Catholics from the very beginning of the Reformation were oppressed and persecuted by the ancestors of the Protestants. On that account the coalition was denounced by its enemies as the Monster League, because it seemed so contrary to the nature of the two parties. But in spite of this opposition the union, especially since 1879, has become an accomplished fact, although no formal contract was ever drawn up. There is a tacit convention by which both sides agree to so combine their votes on a Catholic or Protestant representative. They are thus sure their interests will be defended in Parliament. The first result of this co-operation was the victory at the polls in _ 1888, when forty-five Liberals, twenty-seven Anti-Revolutionists, twenty-six Catholics, one Conservative, and one Socialist were elected for the Lower House. The consequence of this election was the anti-Liberal Ministry of 1888, presided over by Mr. Mackay. But, unfortunately, in the year 1891, a law was proposed for the reorganisation of the army, in which the principle of personal service was involved, and that was the shoal on which this coalition was wrecked. Worse still, it also gave rise to a disagreement in the Catholic party. The anti-Revolutionists were for personal service, and a part of the Catholics against it. This gave rise to the Bahlman faction. Another party of Catholics,followed the lead of Schaepman and rallied with the > anti-Revolutionists. But before the debate on the military question was over the general elections of 1891 proved that the disagreement between the two Christian parties had ruined the majority, for the new House was composed of fifty-five Liberals and forty-five anti-Liberals. Mackay was replaced by Trenhooer Tak van Poortoleet. This Ministry revoked the military law of Mackay, and personal service was admitted only in 1898. Nevertheless, in the course of time the coalition was again re-established, and in 1900 another anti-Liberal Ministry, that of Dr. Kuyper, took the reins of government. This Ministry did a great deal to repair the iniquities committed by the Liberals in dealing with the Christian parties. But its principal work was that of revising the school law as regards university and primary education. Catholics and Protestants could not send their children to the State schools because the so-called neutral education was, generally speaking, openly anti-religious. For that reason the two parties decided to erect private schools, both for the Protestants and Catholics. These schools, however; received no subsidies from the State; consequently, while supporting their own schools, they had, like other Netherlander, to pay their taxes for the public schools. Kuyper, however, revised the school law, providing that < the universities and primary schools should receive a subsidy from the State. Private universities besides, would have the power of conferring degrees, which would have the same civil effects as the degrees obtained in the , State Universities.

When this was obtained, Kuyper wanted to propose a similar revision for the high schools, but before that the election of 1904 had thrown him out of office. Dr. Kuyper was then made the scapegoat of the Right, electors going to the polls crying out, 'Down with Kuvper!' The result was that the Left won by a small majority. Nevertheless, the Liberal Ministry of do Meester, which took the reins of government, could do nothing with its small majority, Besides, it was made up of men who had no

political ability, so that the Liberal party broke into many factions and on several questions were unable to agree. The consequence of this was that the de Meester Ministry, after a precarious and pitiable existence of three years, gave way to the Ministry of the Right. But because Kuyper was so objectionable to the Liberal party, it did not seem prudent to put him at the head of the newMinistry. Mr. Heemskerke succeeded in forming a Ministry which had the complete confidence of the Right, and which had three Catholic members. At the beginning Heemskerke had but a small majority in the house, but because of his exceptional ability and prudence and vigor, he triumphed over the first difficulties. In 1908 his position was notably strengthened by elections for the Lower House when sixty members of the Right were elected against forty of the Left, and in the Upper Chamber there were thirtytwo members on the Right and eighteen on the Left. The first solicitude of Heemskerke was to complete the revision of the school law for higher education, so that like universities and the primary schools they might receive subsidies from the State.