Priest training centre, churches close

The Catholic church is to stop training new priests in Utrecht because so few men apply the centre is uneconomical to run, the Telegraaf reports on Tuesday.


Fifteen years ago, the seminary had 40 students, but currently has just 12. Instead, student priests will train at the Tiltenberg seminary run by the Haarlem-Amsterdam diocese.
At the same time, the Protestant church council in Leeuwarden has announced plans to close four of its seven churches because of falling attendences.
‘It is very simple. Every year we are losing 2% to 3% of our members and that has hit our income,’ Henk Drewel of the local church council told news agency ANP.

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