Joannes Gijsen

His Excellency Joannes Baptist Matthijs Gijsen
Bishop of Reykjavík
File:Johannes Gijsen.jpg Bishop Gijsen in 2010
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Diocese	Diocese of Roermond Diocese of Reykjavík
In office	Roermond: January 20, 1972 – January 23, 1993 Reykjavík: May 24, 1996 – October 30, 2007
Predecessor	Roermond: Petrus Moors Reykjavík: Alfred Jolson (S.J.)
Successor	Roermond: Frans Wiertz Reykjavík: Pierre Bürcher
Personal details
Born	(1932-10-07)October 7, 1932 Oeffelt, Netherlands
Died	Sittard, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch

Joannes Baptist Matthijs Gijsen (October 7, 1932 – June 24, 2013) was a Dutch bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. After being Bishop (emeritus) of Roermond, Limburg, the Netherlands, he became Bishop (emeritus) of the Diocese of Reykjavík (Iceland). His episcopal motto is Parate viam Domini (Prepare the way of the Lord).

Early life

Gijsen was born in Oeffelt. He obtained a doctorate (Ph.D) in Church History.

Roermond, the Netherlands

Pope Paul VI appointed Gijsen as bishop of Roermond in 1972. In 1993 he resigned for health reasons.

Reykjavik, Iceland

After a few years at the titular see as bishop of Maastricht, (Traiectum ad Mosam), Gijsen's health improved. In Roermond, he had already been succeeded by bishop Frans Wiertz but in Reykjavik, the diocese with few priests for an enormous area, happened to have been vacant for two years, due to the rather sudden death of the American bishop, Alfred Jolson.

Bishop Gijsen moved from the heavily Catholic Dutch diocese to Reykjavik, where the Catholic population is very small and rising solely due to immigration. Gijsen remained bishop in Iceland for another ten years. On October 30, 2007, the Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation from the pastoral government of the Diocese of Reykjavík, presented by Joannes Gijsen, in accordance with canon 401 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law. Since then the bishop lived in Sittard (Limburg) as pastor of the Carmelite Sisters. In Reykjavik, he was succeeded by the Swiss-born bishop Pierre Bürcher.

Death

Gijsen died in Sittard on 24 June 2013, aged 80. He died only 2 months after another Dutch bishop, Muskens, died.

In 2014 two complaints against Gijsen for sexual abuse dating from the period 1958–1961 were deemed valid by the complaints commission of the Catholic Church. The determination that complaints were valid was the first time against a Dutch bishop. Gijsen's successor in the diocese of Roermond, Frans Wiertz, apologized for Gijsen's behaviour.

External links

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Reykjavík (English) (Icelandic)