L. van Rijckevorsel — published in the volume as pastoor L. van Rijckevorsel (i.e., a Catholic parish priest; the table of contents gives his title as Pater, father) — was a Dutch Catholic priest who, in 1946, contributed the chapter De invloed der missie (“The Influence of the [Catholic] Mission”) to the volume Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk edited by Dr. Wormser. His chapter appears as part (b) of the broader section on De christelijke godsdienst (the Christian religion), with part (a) being Dr. Brouwer’s chapter on the Protestant mission.
Role in the volume
Van Rijckevorsel’s chapter treats the Catholic missions of the Dutch East Indies as the companion-piece to Brouwer’s treatment of the Protestant missions. The two chapters together constitute the volume’s account of the Christian influence on the Indies, against which Prof. Dr. Kernkamp’s much longer chapter on Islam supplies the dominant religious frame.
For the Atjeh-focused reader, Van Rijckevorsel’s chapter is significant chiefly by contrast: Atjeh, as a vigorously Muslim region, lies almost entirely outside the catchment area of the Catholic missions he describes. The chapter thus confirms — by its silence on Atjeh — the picture given elsewhere in the volume of Atjeh as one of the most thoroughly Islamised regions of the Indies. The single indirect Atjeh connection in the volume’s missionary sections is Brouwer’s note that the Batakkerk’s outreach extended “across the border of Atjeh.”
Significance
The inclusion of a Catholic-mission chapter alongside the Protestant-mission chapter in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk is itself significant: it reflects the post-nineteenth-century normalisation of Catholic missions in the Indies (after their long suppression under the VOC) and the volume’s editorial decision to treat Protestant and Catholic missions as parallel contributors to the Indies’ Christian presence. For the Atjeh-focused reader, Van Rijckevorsel’s chapter is most useful as a comparative frame against which to read the absence of a Catholic mission in Atjeh itself.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- Nederlandsch-Indië — Netherlands Indies
- Batakkerk — Batak Church
- invloed der missie — influence of the [Catholic] mission
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Batak — Batak
- pastoor — parish priest
- Pater — Father (Catholic)
- Prof. Dr. — Professor Doctor
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), pp. 124–136 (chapter De invloed der missie door pastoor L. van Rijckevorsel).