Word: amersfoort
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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More significant, however, was the dismally low attendance at event after event, as though some pervasive national ennui had set in. Said one Vatican official, after observing the paltry crowd at an Amersfoort youth rally: "I have never seen anything like that." John Paul's four-day Dutch sojourn indicated that there are indeed distinct limits to the power of his personal charisma and that his attempt to reconcile Dutch Catholics with his conservative agenda for the church has had minimal success...
...seemed to fit John Paul's overall strategy of being as diplomatic as possible on Dutch soil and making more gestures of mollification toward his critics than is customary. Despite the disappointments on the trip, he was not defiant but uncharacteristically plaintive and conciliatory. At the youth rally in Amersfoort, he pleaded, "You must continue to tell us everything honestly. But you must also listen to our criticisms...