An
independent report on sexual abuse at Dutch Catholic institutions has drawn
widespread media coverage, both at home and abroad. The Dutch justice minister
has expressed shock and the Dutch Catholic authorities have offered apologies.
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Between
10,000 and 20,000 children suffered abuse at Catholic schools, seminaries and
orphanages, the Deetman inquiry found. The report identifies 800 offenders.
The bishops
and the Congregation of Dutch Religious have voiced shock and have offered
their apologies. A bishops’ statement said: “We express our apologies for the
abuse. It fills us with shame and sorrow. Not only the offenders deserve blame
but so do the clerical authorities who failed to act accurately and failed to
put the interest of and care for the victims first.”
The
Congregation of Dutch Religious is the organisation of religious orders,
congregations, abbeys and monasteries. In a statement, the bishops say they
intend to make a personal effort to improve support for the victims and want to
involve the victims themselves in that process. They also say they wish to take
measures to make sexual abuse a topic that can be discussed openly.
In a
letter, Cardinal Simonis offers a personal apology. In it, the says he regrets
that Church officials failed to act in an appropriate manner in a number of
cases that occurred during his tenure. “Of course I take it personally”, he
writes in the letter.
Last year
the cardinal caused controversy by stating: “Wir haben es nicht gewusst”,
German for “We didn’t know”, a phrase some Germans used after World War II in
connection with German war atrocities, including the Jewish Holocaust. A few
days later, the cardinal withdrew the statement.
Security
and Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten has expressed shock at the extent of the
abuse within the Catholic Church. “The picture Mr Deetman paints is very
intense and shocking”, the minister said after the weekly cabinet meeting.
In its
conclusions, the Deetman report urges the government to centralise efforts
aimed at combating child sex abuse. Mr Optelten pointed out that a report on
human trafficking had made a similar recommendation. “We said then: we’ll do
it, we’ll intensify that, we’ll get tougher and broader. This is an extra
signal which I take extremely seriously,” the minister said.
Many of the
cases in which clerics are suspected of abusing children have become
prescribed. For “situations which are still continuing”, Mr Optselten urged
victims to report them to the Public Prosecutor’s Office so it can determine
whether it can take legal action.
Many
international news websites, including the BBC, CNN and al-Jazeera, cover the
story on their homepage. Several newspapers, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine
and Die Welt in Germany, De Standaard in Belgium and The Irish Times, carry
extensive reports on the scandal.
" ...The former head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands, Cardinal Ad Simonis, says the church leaders were not aware of child sex abuse in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s... '' - (Read more ... )
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| Cardinal Ad Simonis: "wir haben es nicht gewusst" |
" ...The former head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands, Cardinal Ad Simonis, says the church leaders were not aware of child sex abuse in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s... '' - (Read more ... )
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