A row about church closures has prompted one politician to leave Catholicism
Last month the medieval church of St Walburga in the Dutch city of Arnhem (pictured) was sold for almost one million euros so that it could be converted into flats. First used in 1375, the church had been elevated to the status of basilica minor in 1964, but in 2013 it was closed because of a decline in the number of Mass-goers. The parish decided to concentrate its activities in Arnhem’s two other churches.
This is not unique to the city, or the Archdiocese of Utrecht in which it lies. Most of the seven Dutch dioceses are confronted with such choices: trying to keep open all their churches at sometimes high costs, or closing excess buildings.
