In the 19th century in many Western states, the close relationship between Church and State came to an end and the Roman Catholic Church developed into a major and active player on social and educational level in society separate from the State.
This was due, on the one hand, to the constitutional changes in the Western states from the end of the 18th century, which led to the gradual introduction of the formal principle of separation of Church and State. On the other hand, it was a result of the search for a new position of the Roman Catholic Church in society that also influenced the theological reflection of the Church on society.
The ecclesiastical reflection on the ideal relationship between Church and State took shape in the course of this process in the Ius Publicum Ecclesiasticum. The ecclesiastical view on the relationship between believers/citizens, society and State simultaneously took shape in Catholic social doctrine, which today still offers a model for modern society. In Catholic social doctrine, the believer/citizen is the connecting element between Church and State in a secular society. The ‘state doctrine’ of the Catholic Church is presented in Catholic social doctrine as an ideal image of the democratic constitutional state in which man is central and forms the central link between Church, society and secular State.

The first national research into church formation among Roman Catholic migrants in the Netherlands dates from the year 2006. Since then many changes took place within these communities. However, there is not a single institution that collects their addresses and data. Policymakers, scholars or journalists do not have access to recent information. Based on questions about their development and composition, this article updates information about these church communities and places them in a broader historical context. One of the most significant findings in this article concerns the stability of their regular parishioners, that contrasts with the national trend in Roman Catholic Church, which is constantly dealing with a declining amount of members.

On 20 December 2017, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that an extrajudicial unilateral divorce brought about in Syria does not come within the substantive scope of the European regulation on the law applicable to divorces (Rome III Regulation). In response to this decision, the inequality between men and women in the divorce law of Muslim countries, the developments that are going on in this area, as well as the role the non-discrimination-principle plays in the recognition policies in European states on Islamic repudiations, are discussed in this contribution.

The question central to this article is whether ‘Islam’ and human rights are compatible and, if not, whether there might be room to come to a minimum standard of human rights that can be shared globally. This article will demonstrate that, from the perspective of Islamic orthodoxy, principles that are fundamental to human rights, like equality and freedom of religion, pose unsurmountable problems, and the adjustment of these principles is theologically nearly impossible. However, a growing number of Muslim intellectuals holds the opposite view, using new theological methods to argue that these Islamic principles and human rights are compatible. Although they are warmly welcomed by human rights lawyers and activists, their methods are not uncontroversial, and they are still very small in number.

The article is a plea to reconsider the new impetus that the second Vatican council in the catholic church has brought about, and to give it shape in the ecclesiastical administration of the catholic church. After a period of strong renewal this movement seems to be evaporated in the Netherlands, whereas this council and the code of 1983 have a lot of opportunities to offer. On the basis of a number of concrete examples of administrative reforms that Pope Francis and some of the newly appointed bishops have realized, the author offers some concrete proposals.