Although the Netherlands has a large RC population, as a nation mentally and culturally we still consider ourselves a Protestant nation and we do not consider the Pope in the same regards or importance as many other (Protestant) countries may do. The Protestants in the Netherlands have had no ultimate Church leader so they cannot relate to that. One of the key reasons for the onset of the Protestant movement was the desire to rid the faith of the RC theology, abuses, absolutism, church institutions and hierarchy. Much of that sentiment lingers to this day. We do not speak of this very often but it’s there. The Orange-Nassaus have historically been quite anti-papist and defenders of the Protestant faith. In modern times this has changed of course but an important part of the royalists are in fact Protestants. Maxima is fully accepted but remains seen as a RC spouse of a Protestant King and this surfaces on such moments. Personally I do not care but I would have thought that sending someone of the RF and especially Maxima would have been appropriate as spouse of the Head of State but it seems the King and PM decided differently. Now we have a rather feeble PM at the moment so my guess is is the King decided on this. An important reason for staying in the Netherlands was that this is a national day that is all about the King and RF. Not being present at your own birthday party is a bit strange isn’t it? Such visits to state occasions take hours out of your agenda. You can’t just pop in and out. Same goes for Kings Day which is all about seeing the King and RF up close and personal during the day with a full program involving thousands of volunteers and lots of money spent… If anything: going to the funeral and cancelling most of the program would have seriously hurt the Kings and RF popularity… which they can t afford either this moment. And honestly I don t think Pope Francis cared about any of this (nonsense).