Andreas Rinkel

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Archbishop A. Rinkel

Andreas Rinkel (born January 10, 1889 in Nieuwer-Amstel , † March 25, 1979 in Utrecht ) was the thirteenth Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht from 1937 to 1970 .

Life

Childhood and youth

Rinkel grew up in modest circumstances as the fifteenth of a total of seventeen children, but only seven of them reached adulthood. First he attended elementary school in Nieuwer-Amstel, where his father ran a bakery. In 1899 the family moved to Amsterdam , where he attended primary school until 1901.

As a seminarian, he first attended the preparatory course at the grammar school in Amersfoort from 1902. After completing this with excellent results, he began the actual theological study in 1904, which lasted until 1911.

Study and priesthood

At the beginning of the 20th century, education and spirituality in the Amersfoort seminary were still heavily influenced by Port-Royal , the French stronghold of Jansenism that was forcibly liquidated in 1709 . There was relatively little sign of a striving for reform and revitalization, as in the Old Catholic movements in other countries. The main work of the French Pasquier Quesnel , Réflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament (1671), served as material for consideration, while dogmatics was still taught from the handbook from the end of the 18th century by Joseph Valla , also a French theologian. During his studies, Rinkel realized that a new orientation of the curriculum in the seminar was urgently needed.

On January 25, 1914, he concluded his seminary with the ordination in the seminary chapel. A good three months later he was appointed pastor in Enkhuizen . As a member of the clergy in the Diocese of Haarlem , he appeared in publications as a proponent of reforms, including the abolition of compulsory celibacy . After his disappearance in 1922, Rinkel married his housekeeper Cornelia Anna van Nus (1877–1952) on July 17, 1923 - like some of his colleagues at the same time.

Until 1920 he worked as a pastor in Enkhuizen and then in Amersfoort, where he also held a professorship for dogmatics and ethics at the local seminary from autumn 1921 . Previously he had already conducted studies of the work of several theologians and church historians, mainly from countries outside the Netherlands; for example about the Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck , the German Lutheran Reinhold Seeberg and the Anglican Arthur Headlam , who in their publications called for a dialogue between the religious schools of thought and - like Headlam for example - “true learning from others”. With Professor Rinkel, the long-awaited reforms in the seminar's curriculum had to be implemented. Valla's book disappeared from the curriculum and was replaced by a curriculum he had created , which brought in a lot of new content. Later, however, Rinkel distanced himself from some of these views. To a confidante he described it as "a non-Catholic, unliturgical phase with Protestant inclinations".

During the years in Amersfoort, Rinkel was not only active as a lecturer and writer, in Dutch as well as in German, he also did not neglect his pastoral duties. Rinkel associated a small figure with a violent temperament that he by no means hid. He also had a great interest in music, he was not only considered an excellent pianist and organist, but also composed masses and hymns.

In 1926 he became a member of the Utrecht Metropolitan Chapter.

Rinkel also proved himself to be an advocate of the ecumenical movement. In 1931 he played an important role in formulating the Bonn Agreement , which established full sacramental communion between the Anglican and Old Catholic Churches. His relationship with the Anglican Church remained cordial afterwards. In 1935 Rinkel became the first representative of the Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands in the World Council of Churches.

Episcopate

Beginnings

When Archbishop Franciscus Kenninck died in February 1937 , Rinkel was elected as his successor. On June 15, 1937, the episcopal ordination by Johann Hermann Berends , the Bishop of Deventer , took place in the St. Gertrude Cathedral in Utrecht . Until 1948 Rinkel continued his lectures at the seminar in Amersfoort.

The contact with the Swiss Christian Catholic theology professor and Bishop Urs Küry was of great importance for the reorientation of his theological thinking in later phases of his life . A warm personal friendship developed between Rinkel and Küry.

After taking office, Rinkel caused a bit of a stir because he did not move into the so-called “French House” on the Mariaplaats in Utrecht, which had been the residence of the old Catholic archbishops since the mid-19th century. He thought it was too big and knew it was in a state of disrepair. So he chose a house elsewhere in Utrecht, on the Emmalaan.

In 1939 Rinkel became a member of the honorary committee for the great national Willibrord commemoration. After the opening of the exhibition on the occasion on June 15, 1939, the three Dutch Old Catholic bishops met with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht Jan de Jong , who had taken the initiative for a "friendly conversation". This was a historic meeting insofar as such informal contacts marked the end of a centuries-old attitude in both churches to ignore and fight one another.

German occupation

During the German occupation, Rinkel tried to avoid conflicts with the occupiers as much as possible. However, he did not shy away from repeatedly taking a clear position on key issues, such as the presentation of the collection plans required by the Germans and the forced sterilization of Jews who lived in so-called "mixed marriages". In 1941 he appointed the then cathedral priest of St. Gertrudis, Engelbertus Lagerwey , to be Bishop of Deventer , although he was considered a supporter of the resistance movement .

After 1945

The post-war years were mainly characterized by reconstruction. In the Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands this went off without great difficulty and ecumenical contacts were deepened, which Rinkels fully agreed with.

In contrast, building up church life in communist-ruled Eastern Europe turned out to be more complex. This was an important concern for Rinkel because, as Archbishop of Utrecht, he was ex officio chairman of the International Bishops' Conference, the highest advisory body of the Old Catholic Church, and in this capacity he was responsible for the sister churches behind the “Iron Curtain”.

At Rinkel's personal intervention, the German Old Catholic Bishop Erwin Kreuzer published a pastoral letter at Easter 1946 in which he openly confessed that the German Old Catholics were complicit in the crimes of the Nazi regime.

On November 8, 1970, Rinkel resigned from the office of Archbishop, he was the first Archbishop of Utrecht to retire from this office. He himself thought that the time had come for him to retire. Others felt it was time for a new archbishop with a more understanding of recent developments in the Church. Utrecht remained where he lived, even when his health deteriorated so much that he was unable to read, write and play the piano.

After the death of his wife in 1952, Rinkel enjoyed the care of Greet Roos, who was thirty years his junior, for a quarter of a century. He had met her as a young parishioner in Amersfoort. She later accompanied him on his travels and he helped her in her professional development as a nurse. In recognition of her devotion and concern for him, the now very old Rinkel wished that she would bear his name in the future, and so he offered her marriage twice - in 1977 and 1978. However, Rinkel's request met with fierce opposition from a number of Church leaders who feared negative reactions at home and abroad. The marriage was ultimately not approved.

Andreas Rinkel died in 1979 at the age of ninety.

effect

Andreas Rinkel is regarded as a distinguished author and speaker with excellent style. For his services as a theologian he was awarded two honorary doctorates : one in 1938 by the Institute for Christian Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Bern ; the other from the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in New York in 1966. The source of strength in his life was - in his own words - "an arduously contested faith" which he had had to acquire "through thought and doubt."

Web links

literature

  • WB van der Velde (Ed.): Adjutorio Redemptoris. Dr. Andreas Rinkel, aartsbisschop van Utrecht, 1889-1979. Amersfoort 1987.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adjutorio Redemptoris , p. 248.
  2. ↑ Matthias Ring (ed.): ... that we too have become complicit. Old Catholic pastoral letters and episcopal words in the Third Reich. Bonn 2002, p. 94ff.
  3. ^ Adjutorio Redemptoris , p. 221.
predecessor Office successor
Franciscus Kenninck Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
1937–1970 		Marinus Kok
personal data
SURNAME Rinkel, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch Old Catholic Bishop
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Nieuwer-Amstel
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1979
Place of death Utrecht