One of the world’s most controversial theologians, the Flemish born, Dutch professor Edward Schillebeeckx (hereafter S.) died in Holland in December 2009 at age 95. Considered a most promising theologian before the Second Vatican Council with his book Christ, the Sacrament of Encounter with God (Dutch 1959/English 1963), he became deeply involved and, was ultimately carried away, by those who regarded the Vatican Council as a radical break with past theology and tradition.

            From 1965 onwards S. took an increasingly adversarial position against the positions of Pope Paul VI and especially John Paul II, whose “conservatism” and “doctrinal orthodoxy,” he believed, threatened the Church. His major works appeared after 1965 including his 700-page book on Christ, (without miracles because S. did not believe in them) and shorter works such as Ministry. In the latter he projected priestly vocations to come from the calling forth of individuals, including married men and women, by local parishes who would also carry out ordination rites.

            Perhaps his most influential work was found in the New—later also called the Dutch—Catechism, published by the Higher Catechetical Institute at the Catholic University of Nymegen in Holland in 1966 of which S. was the chief theologian.

            This Catechism abandoned the Question and Answer memorization process of previous Catechisms, replacing it with well-written discursive topics for adults. Unfortunately, when after the Council the Vatican appointed a seven-cardinal strong board to examine the Catechism, it was found that some major doctrines has just been “overlooked,” or treated inadequately. After very large sales in Europe (e.g., a half million in Holland and Germany each and 400,000 in English and after a Dutch delegation of three theologian including S. refused the Vatican request for a re-write), the Vatican ordered the publishers of the second English American edition (blue cover) to add an appendix of some 60 pages in the back, listing ten major doctrines, beginning with Original Sin, Today this make it much easier to see what is wrong with the earlier editions. The sixty pages of the Supplement are divided under ten headings, each of which indicate major deficiencies in the theology of the Catechism, some of them straight forward omissions: 1) Creation (specifically the existence of angels and devils; also the direct creation of the human soul); 2) Original Sin (and sin in general); 3) The Virgin Birth; 4) The Satisfaction offered by Jesus to the Father; 5) The Sacrifice of the Mass; 6) The Eucharistic Presence and Change; 7) Infallibility of the Church; 8) Priesthood and Authority in the Church; 9) Various points of dogmatic theology (including the nature of Jesus, miracles, and life after death); 10) Various points of moral theology (including the married state and the indissolubility of marriage).

            The damage was tremendous especially in the Netherlands where a once flourishing Catholic Church entered a death spiral from which it has not (yet) recovered.

            May he rest in peace.