BIEZENMORTAL, Netherlands (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, auxiliary bishop of s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) in the Netherlands who is known for his staunch defense of Catholic orthodoxy, was badly injured in a car accident over the weekend.
Bishop Mutsaerts, 67, struck a tree on the side of the road on his way home from a retreat center where he was hearing confessions and was promptly transported to the hospital, per Dutch media. His Excellency suffered a broken elbow and pelvis and a dislocated hip but is currently responsive and no longer in intensive care.
“Bishop De Korte spoke briefly with Bishop Mutsaerts by phone on Sunday afternoon and wished him strength and courage,” a diocesan statement said. “Bishop Mutsaerts now needs rest above all else to recover. Bishop De Korte asks for your prayers for the auxiliary bishop.”
One of the courageous ones needs our prayers https://t.co/ntFfRkper1
— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) May 11, 2026
In recent years, Bishop Mutsaerts has been one of the few bishops to consistently defend Church teaching and denounce modern errors, especially the promotion of the LGBT agenda. In a 2024 article for LifeSiteNews, the prelate called Pope Francis’ Fiducia Supplicans a “cowardly” document that is an attempted “deliberate modification” of what is sinful.
“Fiducia Supplicans – the controversial Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – is above all a cowardly document. It refuses to name homosexual practices as intrinsically evil,” he wrote. “It is now clear that Fiducia Supplicans is not about an expansion of the meaning of blessings, but of a deliberate modification of what is sin.”
Bishop Mutsaerts also denounced the common argument that the document allows only spontaneous or “pastoral blessings,” not formal ones.
Give ‘blessing’ a new meaning, and you can do anything with it. The magic word that is then easily pulled out is ‘pastoral.’ A formal blessing is not allowed, the Declaration says, but a spontaneous blessing is. That is ‘pastoral.’
How often the word ‘pastoral’ is used to set aside the Magisterium, to set doctrine and life in opposition to each other, and then to condone life that is at odds with doctrine. Pastoral care is no longer soul care; it has become soulless.
In October 2025, during the Catholic Identity Conference, he joined Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Marian Eleganti, and Bishop Joseph Strickland in leading millions of faithful, in person and virtually, in making an act of reparation for the Vatican-approved “LGBT pilgrimage” a month earlier. During that pilgrimage, a group led by a rainbow cross, including many people with their homosexual “partners,” dressed in rainbow colors and with some waving “LGBT pride” flags, processed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, some wearing clothing and backpacks with explicit messages.
READ: Bishop Schneider says Catholics must worship Christ, not LGBT ideology or climate agenda
“When something grave happens, you have to make reparations, and that’s what we did,” Bishop Mutsaerts told LifeSite after the act of reparation.
In an April article on his blog, he recalled his experience administering the Sacrament of Confirmation at a pro-LGBT church and emphasized that these pro-LGBT “Catholics” who claim to be tolerant and inclusive are intolerant toward Church Tradition.
“The ‘inclusive church’ often claims that it welcomes everyone, regardless of background, identity, or belief. That sounds grand, almost evangelical. But here the paradox creeps in: one welcomes everyone — provided they share certain views on identity, sexuality, and truth,” the bishop wrote.
READ: Bishop Mutsaerts: Pro-LGBT ‘Catholics’ claim to be inclusive but are intolerant toward tradition
“Anyone who questions this, anyone who speaks from a traditional Catholic perspective on morality or anthropology, soon finds that the door is not as wide open as promised,” he added.
“The traditional Church says: This is what we believe, and if you dispute that, we will engage in dialogue with you, but we will not give up our conviction. The inclusive church says something else: We exclude no one, while at the same time implicitly excluding certain beliefs,” he said.
LifeSite encourages all readers to pray for Bishop Mutsaerts’ prompt recovery.