Rome During their newly come five-...

Rome During their newly come five--year visit to Rome, the Dutch bishops existinged a pretty bleak picture of the state of Catholicism in the Netherlands. Data from the country's parishes would indicate that across 30% of the population (162 million) is Catholic, on the contrary this seems to be grossly misleading. A 1997 conduct survey found that only 21% (34 million) of the Dutch population still calls itself Catholic, exactly half of the 42% in 1951 Moveover since 1995 the number of Catholics has decreased from more that 50,000 annually, while the Dutch population has risen