Bishop Gijsen couldn’t stomach the fact that Van der Ven celebrated the Eucharist with a Protestant minister at the student chaplaincy. The man was dismissed from Tafelstraat 13, home of the ecumenical chaplaincy. A later Catholic student chaplain was dismissed for being openly gay, which Gijsen found intolerable. But this person refused to step down, according to the Observant archives, so the diocese decided to establish and fund its own chaplaincy: In de Fortuyn, located right next to St. Matthias Church on Boschstraat. Fernando Peró led it for many years, surrounding himself with students from the Catholic student association Servatius.
Euthanasia
Observant paid them a visit in 1993, shortly after Gijsen suddenly resigned for health reasons – though he was later implicated in sexual abuse. During the visit, the UM journalist asked Peró and Servatius about Gijsen’s resignation and their views on euthanasia, cohabitation and abortion, as well as Peró’s membership of Opus Dei, a deeply conservative Catholic organisation often likened to a cult. “I am an Opus Dei priest”, Peró acknowledged, “but my job is student chaplain, and that’s what I am 24 hours a day. As such, I answer only to the bishop and no one else.” What did he think of the other Catholic student chaplain, at Tafelstraat 13? Peró acted as if he didn’t understand the question, insisting that he was the only Catholic student chaplain: “I am the only one officially appointed by the diocese.” The article did not go down well with members of Servatius, who accused the journalist of biased and “sensationalised” reporting.
Knock on doors
The Catholic student association Servatius was dissolved in the late 1990s. Membership was low, and the rent was high. Everard de Jong, who was later appointed auxiliary bishop in 1998, had tried to succeed Peró, but without success. In an interview, he said he regretted not taking a more “thorough” approach to the student chaplaincy. “At first, I thought I’d visit student houses – just knock on doors and say, ‘I’m the student chaplain, may I introduce myself?’ Servatius advised against it, thinking it was too pushy. Now I wonder: why didn’t I do it?”
Around that same time, the Catholic chaplain at Tafelstraat 13 resigned. Perhaps it was time for a single, joint candidate? De Jong didn’t think so. Tafelstraat, he said, had “its own opinion”, while “the bishops ultimately [decide] what is Catholic. There’s a kind of copyright, a kind of brand, and it’s up to the bishops and the pope. And you can’t have two chaplains both calling themselves Catholic. It would be incomprehensible and unacceptable to the public.” De Jong’s assessment proved accurate: two new chaplains were appointed, one at Tafelstraat 13 and one at the Basilica of Our Lady.
Innbetween
Although Tafelstraat continued to attract students for activities like praying, singing, drawing, cooking and meditating, finances were tight. For years, the university funded the building, but not the student chaplains’ salaries. In 1978, when Frits van der Ven was officially proposed, the State University of Limburg refused to pay for a chaplain, as it wasn’t a Roman Catholic university. The same applied to the other chaplains. Budget cuts eventually forced Tafelstraat 13 to close; the student chaplaincy moved to Capucijnenstraat 122 and was renamed InnBetween. It has since temporarily moved to the Kaleido building on Tapijn.