NETHERLANDS: Independent commission says thousands of children have been victims of sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands since 1945

Record ID: 334656

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: Independent commission says thousands of children have been victims of sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands since 1945
  • Date: 17th December 2011
  • Summary: AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS (DECEMBER 14, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIORS OF CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMSTERDAM THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (DECEMBER 16, 2011) (REUTERS) BOOK OF THE REPORT INTO SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) CHAIRMAN OF INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE, WIM DEETMAN, SAYING: "I come to the third conclusion, that among the Dutch people of 40 years old or older, somewhere between one person in a hundred and one person in three hundred, had an experience of unwilling sexual contact before reaching 18 years of age, with a person working in an orphanage or a boarding school within the Roman Catholic church." JOURNALIST READING A REPORT (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) CHAIRMAN OF INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE, WIM DEETMAN, SAYING: "The count of sexual abuse of children under the age of 18 within the Roman Catholic church in the Netherlands, that is children who spent a part of their life as kids in one of the catholic orphanages or boarding schools, is between ten thousand and twenty thousand people." JOURNALIST WRITING VICTIM UNION REPRESENTATIVE, GUIDO KLABBERS, TALKING TO THE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) VICTIMS UNION, GUIDO KLABBERS, SAYING: "What is really important today is what the next steps will be of the bishops, they have postponed their actions for one and a half year and from now there is no excuse to postpone any steps towards the victims. What we expect is recognition of all those crimes and we are talking about crimes against children and we want reconciliation and compensation for the suffer that had been done to all those victims." JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 1st January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Netherlands, Netherlands
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVABJ7V8K0HPU9LQ23JQ7LEZO0GX
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of children have been victims of sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands since 1945, an independent commission said on Friday (December 16), criticising what it called the church's cover-up and cultural silence.
    "I come to the third conclusion, that among the Dutch people of 40 years old or older, somewhere between one person in a hundred and one person in three hundred, had an experience of unwilling sexual contact before reaching 18 years of age, with a person working in an orphanage or a boarding school within the Roman Catholic church," Wim Deetman, chairman of the commission said.
    The commission estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 minors were sexually abused while in the care of Catholic institutions such as orphanages, boarding schools and seminaries, between 1945 and 1981, with offences ranging from the very mild to the serious, including rape. After 1981 there were few church-run homes for minors.
    "The count of sexual abuse of children under the age of 18 within the Roman Catholic church in the Netherlands, that is children who spent a part of their life as kids in one of the catholic orphanages or boarding schools, is between ten thousand and twenty thousand people," Deetman said.
    The commission said that from the end of World War Two until 2010, "several tens of thousands of minors were subjected to mild, serious and very serious forms of inappropriate sexual behaviour in the Roman Catholic Church."
    But it said sexual abuse was no more prevalent in Catholic institutions than in similar ones run by other groups.
    Abuse by Catholic priests, laymen and laywomen was systematically covered up by the church to protect its reputation, the commission said, adding that the church was guilty of "inadequate supervision" and "inadequate action."
    The findings appear to paint a picture of wider abuse in the Netherlands even than in Ireland, in a scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in Europe and the United States and forced Pope Benedict to apologise to victims of sexual abuse by priests.
    The investigation was commissioned by the Conference of Bishops and the Dutch Religious Conference in 2010 after cases surfaced involving pedophile priests in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States.
    The report criticised the church for protecting pedophile priests as it tried to put the reputation of the church above care and concern for the victims.
    Shocked with the magnitude of the scandal and the fact that the Church has lied about it for so many years, lobby groups for child abuse victims say it is high time for the Church to take steps towards compensating the victims for their suffer.
    "What is really important today is what the next steps will be of the bishops, they have postponed their actions for one and a half year and from now there is no excuse to postpone any steps towards the victims. What we expect is recognition of all those crimes and we are talking about crimes against children and we want reconciliation and compensation for the suffer that had been done to all those victims," said Guido Klabbers from the KLOKK lobby group of child abuse victims The church is due to respond in a separate press conference on Friday.
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