Klaas Beuker

Klaas Beuker (21 August 1924 - 9 October 2000) was a Dutch politician. He was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives from 1972 to 1977 as the sole representative of the Roman Catholic Party of the Netherlands (RKPN), a traditionalist Catholic political party.

Early life

Klaas Beuker was born on 21 August 1924 in Harlingen to Thomas Paulus Beuker, a carpenter, and Sjieuwke Ketelaar. He was the youngest of seven children in a devout Roman Catholic family, living in a traditionally strongly Protestant area. He attended a seminary in Wijnandsrade in Limburg from 1938, was interrupted by the Second World War. Beuker went into hiding from 1944 to avoid forced labour in Germany, where he met his future wife Sjoerdtje Brandsma, whom he married in 1953. but failed to obtain enough votes for a seat in the House of Representatives. Following this electoral failure, Beuker split with Cuijpers-Boumans and founded the Roman Catholic Party of the Netherlands (RKPN) on 31 January 1972, becoming its chairman. As an MP, Beuker, who labeled himself as a "front soldier" in the fight for Christian morality, He strongly opposed the progressive policies of the Den Uyl cabinet, most notably its desire to loosen legal restrictions on abortion, which Beuker considered a violation of the right to life. He also supported the protection of the nuclear family as well as the Catholic education system. Having its image weakened by internal conflicts, the RKPN lost its seat in the House of Representatives in the 1977 Dutch general election, marking the end of Beuker's term as MP. He would head the RKPN list again in the 1981 and 1982 Dutch general elections, but failed to regain his seat.

Later life After leaving politics, Beuker remained active in the Catholic Church. In 1979, Beuker founded the organization Trouw aan de Paus (Loyal to the Pope), to combat a perceived lack of loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy in Rome among Dutch Catholics. He led a campaign for the beatification of Titus Brandsma, a Catholic priest murdered in Dachau concentration camp for his opposition to Nazism and a relative of his wife, which led to Brandsma being beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1985. That same year, he aroused controversy through his claims of holding private meetings with Pope John Paul II on the situation of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, which led to a feud with cardinal Adrianus Johannes Simonis, and were denied by the Vatican. After this period, he gradually retreated from public life.

Klaas Beuker died in Hoogwoud on 9 October 2000.