Bishop reported to the European Court by concubine priest

An old Dutch priest, who has been living with a woman of the same age for 46 years, wants to take the diocese to court.

 

"I remain a priest, and cohabitant. And I contest the Bishop who has had me removed." 

These were the comments made by a priest who has been living with a woman for 46 years, and who lost the priesthood two days ago, because he violated (and openly admitted) the obligatory celibacy rule. 

He is not giving up, however, and promises a legal battle. 

Father Jan Peijnenburg, the elderly Dutch priest who has been defrocked, wants to go even further and take his diocese before the European Court of Human Rights.

 

Living a "double life" for almost half a century, in his opinion, does not justify the decision of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, on the contrary, the "cohabitant priest” publicly claims the battle undertaken to obtain permission to live with his partner Threes van Dijck (who is also octogenarian). 

"I will take my case to the European Court of Human Rights", the former pastor announced after recently receiving the letter with which the bishop notified him that he has been suspended from the priesthood because of his refusal to abandon his domestic partner, as the diocesan ordinary officially asked him to do a month ago.

The ultimatum expired on 1 December and when the priest refused to choose between sacred love and profane love, the ax immediately dropped on the diocese of Hertogenbosch, the largest in the Netherlands. 

But the "priest in love" does not want to give up the priesthood. 

So far, Fr. Jan Peijnenburg has been carrying out his pastoral mission in the city of Eindhoven in the south-east Netherlands, and wants to continue doing so, as if nothing had changed.

 

This canonical penalty was widely reported in the media, but in practical terms, it will produce only limited effects because 81 year old Fr. Peijnenburg, is now retired and rarely performs tasks related to his pastoral ministry. Having been officially forbidden to serve in the parish, the Dutch priest is now preparing, with the help of a group of friends, a series of national and international lawsuits. 

The main legal justification is "the contrast between the rights of the Church and those of a citizen," said the former priest.  But, according to lawyers and experts in religious matters who were questioned by Dutch newspapers and television, Fr. Jan Peijnenburg has "a limited chance of success" since the rules that guarantee religious freedom have priority over the right to marry. 

Meanwhile, however, a survey conducted among the priests in the Netherlands shows that 40% of the clergy asked to reopen the debate on mandatory clerical celibacy. And various parties have pointed out that many other clerics are living in the same "irregular" condition as this concubine priest who now intends to bring the Catholic Church before the European Court.

 

The difference lies in his decision to come out into the open, defying the laws of the Church.  Father Jan Peijnenburg, in fact, had publicly declared to live with a woman for many years and has published books to defend his thesis, and invoke the end of celibacy, highlighting in particular how in the first millennium and beyond, the Church saw celibacy in the clergy as "continence", in other words complete renunciation, after ordination, of married life even for those who had been previously married. 

The first rules written on the subject starting from the fourth century (after the end of persecution) confirm that from the beginning of the Church priests and bishops were required to abstain from marriage. 

The opposition to mandatory clerical celibacy is also shared by Paul Iby, Bishop of Eisenstadt, according to whom “priests should be free to choose whether or not to marry” and “the Holy See is too timid on this issue.”