Vatican appoints conservative physician-theologian Archbishop

UTRECHT — The Vatican has appointed a new face at the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the Dutch kerkprovincie of the Roman Catholic Church. Mgr. Wim Eijk, currently Bishop of the northern Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden, will be installed next January to fill the vacancy of retiring Cardinal Simonis. Mgr. Eijk already was a physician when he entered the seminary to study for the priesthood, after discussing the matter with his predecessor who then was the Bishop of Rotterdam. In Mgr. Eijk the Dutch church province will be headed by a conservative theologian who contends for the Roman Catholic faith as taught by Rome. The Dutch public was alerted to that fact shortly after he was appointed Bishop in 1999, when a Roman Catholic church historian devoted a series of tell-all articles on Mgr. Eijk in a Dutch magazine. Known as a conscientious worker, Eijk overcame the after-effects of a stroke in 2001.