Nope. It’s not manipulation. It’s not humiliation either. They really care for you.
A Roman Catholic priest in the Netherlands is to put on display the names and photographs of parish members trying to leave the Church in a bid to get them to stay.
“This is a large parish, and I don’t know everyone: by putting up the photos I thought someone might recognise someone they know who they could try to make stay in the Church,” priest Harm Schilder told AFP on Tuesday.
Seems the church has experienced an exodus since Benedict’s call to “fight gay marriage.” But hey, a person is free to leave a church, right?
“This isn’t about pointing a finger, naming and shaming,” said Schilder, insisting that the plan would help the community pray for these people not to leave the Church and perhaps “persuade them to stay”.
Turns out it’s a bit tricky to leave the Catholic church, and those wishing to do so unwittingly gave the priest their pic.
Those wishing to leave must send a letter to the priest along with a photocopy of identity papers. This is where Schilder gets the photos that will be displayed in the entrance hallway of the church in Tilburg in the south of the country.
The priest made headlines in 2010 when the municipality banned him from ringing church bells at 7:15 am on weekdays.
Around 28 percent of people in the Netherlands say they are Roman Catholic, 18 percent Protestant and 44 percent say they have no religion.
