Joannes Gijsen

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Joannes Baptist Matthijs Gijsen (October 7, 1932 – June 24, 2013) was a Dutch Catholic bishop who led two dioceses during his life: Roermond in the Netherlands and Reykjavík in Iceland.

He was born in Oeffelt, Netherlands, and was ordained a priest in 1957. He earned a Ph.D. in Church History, writing about Joannes Augustinus Paredis. In the late 1960s, he opposed the more liberal direction of the Noordwijkerhout debates on Vatican II, a stance that shaped his later rise as a bishop.

Pope Paul VI appointed him bishop of Roermond in 1972. His appointment caused strong reactions among liberal Dutch Catholics. As bishop, Gijsen tried to reverse some of the Noordwijkerhout changes.

He resigned as bishop of Roermond for health reasons in 1993 and became bishop emeritus there. After his health improved, he became bishop of Reykjavík in 1996, a diocese with few priests and a growing immigrant Catholic population. He retired as bishop of Reykjavík in 2007 and lived in Sittard, Netherlands, as a pastor to the Carmelite Sisters.

Gijsen died in 2013 at the age of 80. In 2014, the Catholic Church’s complaints commission found two abuse complaints against him from 1958–1961 to be valid — the first such finding about a Dutch bishop. His successor in Roermond, Frans Wiertz, apologized for Gijsen’s conduct.