Strong speculation about papal visit

The bishop of Haarlem-Amsterdam has set off speculation about a possible papal trip to the Netherlands by saying Pope Francis seemed very interested in a visit when the Dutch bishops met him last month, writes Tom Heneghan.

In an open letter to his diocese about the bishops’ recent ad limina visit, Bishop Jozef Punt said he and his colleagues told the Pope that his open style had made him very popular in the Netherlands.

“He suggested then that we should make use of this,” Bishop Punt wrote. “I had already spoken to the Pope about a possible visit to Amsterdam. He seemed very interested in it.”

Bishop Punt’s comment that the bishops would consider a possible visit prompted media reports they would issue an invitation soon.

A bishops’ conference official confirmed the details of Bishop Punt’s letter but stressed that nothing had been decided yet.

The last papal visit to the Netherlands was in 1985, when Pope John Paul II’s policy of appointing more conservative bishops sparked repeated protests. Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, who was Utrecht archbishop at the time, later called it “the worst papal visit of all time”.