My recent visit to Amsterdam was in June 2026 for a quick overnight before boarding the Celebrity Eclipse for a 12-day cruise to the Scandinavian countries. My first visit to Amsterdam was in May 2025 and included several day trips. Click here to see the blog and video from my 2025 adventure.

After an overnight flight from Tampa, I arrived in Amsterdam early Saturday afternoon. After settling in my hotel, I walked to the Church of Saint Francis Xavier. Mass was scheduled for 5:15pm in English. I arrived early and began exploring the beauty of this church. To my surprise, before Mass began, an unexpected concert took place that filled the church with beautiful music.

De Krijtberg Kerk is the official name of the Church of Saint Francis Xavier. The current church building was built in 1881 and has been open since 1883. However, since 1654, there has been a Jesuit church at this location.

As I toured the interior of the church before Mass, I noticed a display featuring two Jesuit priests. The first was Father Nicolas Kluiters who joined the Jesuits at age 25 in his home country of Holland. In 1966, he was sent to Lebanon where he completed his novitiate. While in Lebanon he studied Arabic. In 1973, Kluiters was ordained a priest. Shortly after ordination, he began serving the poor in isolated Maronite villages in Lebanon. He also helped renovate a church and construct a school and monastery in the region. After celebrating Mass in 1985, Kluiters disappeared. Seventeen days later, his body was discovered in a ditch showing signs of being shot, hanged, and stabbed. Kluiters was only 44 years old.

The second Jesuit in the display was Pater Frans van der Lugt, S.J. Van der Lugt studied as a psychotherapist but left the Netherlands for the Middle East in the 1960s. He joined the Jesuits and spent two years in Lebanon where he studied Arabic. In 1966, he went to Syria and lived there for nearly fifty years. During his tenure in Syria, he established a community center and farm working for the betterment of people with disabilities and for harmony among Christian and Muslim people. Van der Lugt, at the age of 75, was the second foreign-born Jesuit to fall victim to the Syrian civil war in 2014.

I am currently working on Book #6 with a focus on Jesuit history and its founder Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The book should be ready for distribution by the summer of 2027. I am enjoying the discoveries of Jesuit influence in many unusual places. Amsterdam was one of those amazing discoveries.

Enjoy the video below and the special talent shared. Don’t forget to check out the buttons below for a copy of my latest books.

Stay tuned for my next blog and video on Scandinavia – Part 1 featuring cities in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.