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{{Short description|Dutch Catholic cardinal (1900–1987)}}{{more citations needed|date=July 2020}}{{Expand Dutch|topic=bio|date=June 2020}}{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}

factoids

| death_place = Nieuwegein, NetherlandsSt. Catherine's Cathedral, Utrecht>Saint Catherine's Cathedral, Utrecht, Netherlands| nationality = Dutch| religion = Roman Catholic| motto = EVANGELIZARE DIVITIAS CHRISTI}}Bernardus Johannes Alfrink (5 July 1900 – 17 December 1987) was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1955 to 1975, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1960.BOOK, Who Was Who in America, 1993–1996, vol. 11, 1996, Marquis Who's Who, New Providence, N.J., 0837902258, 4, Alfrink, Bernard Jan Cardinal, registration,weblink

Biography

{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2020}}(File:Coat of arms of Bernardus Johannes Alfrink.svg|thumbnail|Coat of arms of cardinal Bernardus Alfrink.)Born in Nijkerk, Bernardus Johannes Alfrink was the youngest son of Theodorus Johannes Alfrink and his wife, Elisabeth Catharina Ossenvoort. His mother died in 1901 at the birth of his two younger twin sisters (both of whom also died after a few months), after which Bernardus was cared for by a childless aunt from neighboring Barneveld for the next three years. The priest who baptized him was Father Johannes Verstege. Alfrink received his first Communion in 1911.After attending the minor seminary in Culemborg, he enrolled in the seminary at Rijsenburg, and, eventually attended the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on 15 August 1924 by Archbishop Henricus van de Wetering. He completed his studies at the École Biblique in Jerusalem in 1930, the same year he was appointed chaplain in Maarssen. He also did pastoral work in Utrecht until 1933. Alfrink taught at the Seminary of Rijsenburg (1933–1945) and later the Catholic University of Nijmegen (1945–51).On 28 May 1951, he was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Utrecht and Titular Archbishop of Tyana. Alfrink received his episcopal consecration on the following 17 July from Archbishop Paolo Giobbe, papal internuncio in The Hague, with Bishops Willem Lemmens and Jan Smit serving as co-consecrators, in Saint Catherine's Cathedral.Alfrink succeeded Cardinal Johannes de Jong as Archbishop of Utrecht on 31 October 1955 and was named Apostolic vicar of the Catholic Military vicariate of the Netherlands on 16 April 1957. He contributed to scientific publications, led the Pax Christi movement in the Netherlands, and was created Cardinal-Priest of San Gioacchino ai Prati di Castello by Pope John XXIII in the consistory of 28 March 1960.From 1962 to 1965, the Dutch primate participated at the Second Vatican Council, and sat on its Board of Presidency. During one session of the council, Alfrink had Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani's microphone turned off after the latter exceeded his time limit.WEB, Ewtn.com,weblink What Went Wrong With Vatican II, 30 June 2020, Alfrink was one of the cardinal electors in the 1963 papal conclave, which selected Pope Paul VI. Along with Cardinal Giovanni Colombo, he assisted Cardinal Achille Liénart in delivering one of the closing messages of the council on 8 December 1965.WEB, Christusrex.org,weblink To Rulers,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070403055431weblink">weblink 3 April 2007, dead, After the first meeting between Church and Freemasonry which had been held on 11 April 1969 at the convent of the Divine Master in Ariccia, he was the protagonist of a series of public handshakes between high prelates of the Roman Catholic Church and the heads of Freemasonry.WEB, Sandro Magister,weblink it, Tra il papa e il massone non c'è comunione, There is no communion between the pope and the Mason, 19 August 1999, L'Espresso, He served as President of the Episcopal Conference of the Netherlands. Resigning as Utrecht's archbishop on 6 December 1975, he later voted in the conclaves of August and October 1978, which selected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II respectively. During the last years of his life, Alfrink lived, with his housekeeper Dora, in a bungalow at Dijnselburg near Huis ter Heide. The bungalow was called "Dora et Labora" by the Cardinal. It was specifically designed for him. He reappeared in public when Pope John Paul II visited the cardinal in 1985 during a papal visit to Benelux.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} Bernardus Johannes Cardinal Alfrink died in Nieuwegein at age 87, and after his funeral services in St. Catharine's Cathedral, was buried at St. Barbara's cemetery, next to his predecessor.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Views

Aggiornamento

Viewed by some as a "liberal",NEWS, Time.com,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070930061015weblink">weblink dead, 30 September 2007, Council of Renewal, 5 October 1962, 30 June 2020, the Cardinal once said, "It is always a good thing for the Church to move forward. It is not good if the Church comes to a standstill."NEWS, Time.com,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070930070601weblink">weblink dead, 30 September 2007, The Radical, Revolutionary Church of The Netherlands, 31 March 1967, 30 June 2020,

Edward Schillebeeckx

Nijmegen's Dominican theologian Edward Schillebeeckx was Alfrink's regular advisor. Alfrink supported Schillebeeckx and took the latter's condemnation {{clarify|date=July 2020}} as an offence to the Catholic Church in the Netherlands.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Royal conversion

Alfrink refused to respond to the Dutch Reformed Church's call for clarification in regards to Princess Irene's conversion to Catholicism in connection with her intended marriage to Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Awards and honors

In 1986, Alfrink received the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Worship.WEB,weblink Four Freedoms Awards, 30 June 2020, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150325223647weblink">weblink 25 March 2015,

Alfrink's bibliography

• Israelitische und Babylonische Jenseitsvorstellungen. Dissertation bei der Päpstlichen Bibelkommission zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde eingereicht von Bernhard Alfrink, Priester der Erzdiözese Utrecht (Rome, 1930)
• Het Boek Prediker (Brugge, 1932)
• Het boek Ecclesiasticus (Brugge, 1934)
• Epistels en evangeliën volgens het Romeinsch missaal (met G. Hartmann en P. van Grinsven, Hilversum, 1938)
• Het Passieverhaal der vier Evangelisten (Nijmegen, 1946)
• Over "typologische« exegese" van het Oude Testament (oratie, Nijmegen, 1945)
• Josue, uit de grondtekst vertaald en uitgelegd (Roermond, 1952)
• Vragen aan de Kerk: toespraken van kardinaal Alfrink in de jaren van het concilie, met een inleiding van Edward Schillebeeckx (Utrecht/Baarn, 1967)
• Vrede is meer ... – kardinaal Alfrink over oorlog en vrede Pax Christi, 1973
• Leven in de Kerk. Michel van der Plas in gesprek met Kardinaal Alfrink (Utrecht/Baarn, 1984), {{ISBN|9026306547}}

References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{Commons category|Bernardus Alfrink}}

• Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

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