Walter van Nieuwenhuisen

Walter Michael van Nieuwenhuisen served as the eleventh Archbishop of Utrecht from 1768 to 1797.

Walter Michael van Nieuwenhuisen
Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
Church	Old Catholic Church
Archdiocese	Utrecht
In office	1768–1797
Predecessor	Petrus Johannes Meindaerts
Successor	Johannes Jacobus van Rhijn
Orders
Consecration	February 7, 1768 by Johannes van Stiphout & Bartholomaeus Johannes Byeveld

Early Ministry

Before serving as Archbishop of Utrecht, van Nieuwenhuisen served as a parish priest in Dordrecht.

Archbishop of Utrecht

Following the death of Petrus Johannes Meindaerts, Archbishop of Utrecht, on October 31, 1767, the Chapter of Utrecht unanimously elected van Nieuwenhuisen as bishop elect. On February 7, 1768, he was consecrated by Bishop Johannes van Stiphout of Haarlem and Bishop Bartholomaeus Johannes Byeveld of Deventer. Despite van Nieuwenhuisen’s excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church for this act, C.B. Moss says, “The new archbishop received letters of communion from [Roman Catholic] bishops in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and from a large number of [Roman Catholic] priests, who recognized fully, not only that the Church of Utrecht was orthodox in doctrine, but also that her claims to canonical jurisdiction were sound.”[1]

Death

Van Nieuwenhuisen died on Good Friday, April 14, 1797.

References

1. Moss, p. 137.

Sources

Moss, C.B. (1948). The Old Catholic Movement: Its Origins and History. Berkeley, CA: The Apocryphal Press. ISBN 9780976402596.