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Besides all that, the Dutch bishops will ponder a Roman plan to carve their country's seven dioceses into twelve smaller ones, requiring five more bishops. To liberals, that sounds like a bid to "pack" the hierarchy with more conservatives. Holland's primate, Johannes Cardinal Willebrands, appeared understandably glum at the final press conference. However, as liberals had hoped, Rome put some contraints on divisive conservative Bishop Johannes Gijsen.
Initial reaction in The Netherlands was muted, probably because the strategically placed liberals figure it does not much matter what Rome says. Father Walter Goddijn, a sociologist who was secretary general of the now dissolved Dutch Pastoral Council, thinks it is impossible to reverse what he calls Holland's "do it yourself Catholicism. "The Dutch bishops have been roped in by Rome but they will be untied as soon as they are back in Holland," he says. "The Swiss Guard of the Vatican is not the CIA. They only have rubber bullets."