Roman Catholic orders, congregations and dioceses knew about the abuse of minors in Catholic institutions, but failed to help the victims or take action against the abusers.
This is the conclusion of the Deetman Inquiry which on Friday published its final report on abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands.
The report points to the inadequate organisation, and the closed culture of the Dutch archdiocese as the main reason for its inadequate response to the widespread abuse. The church also sought to avoid a scandal.
Thousands
Inquiry chair Wim Deetman, a former education minister, estimates that between 10,000 and 20,000 minors were abused in Catholic boarding schools, children’s homes and orphanages. In several thousands of cases the abuse could be characterised as very serious.
The Deetman Inquiry was able to identify 800 of the abusers. It received more than 2,000 reports, 1,800 of which involved sexual abuse. The abusers were, or are, active in dioceses, congregations and orders. At least 105 of them are still alive. Mr Deetman could not say how many of these 105 are still active in the Roman Catholic Church.
In the report, Mr Deetman argues for a government-controlled approach to sexual and physical abuse of minors.
Celibacy
The report says that the Roman Catholic Church’s compulsory celibacy was not a crucial factor in the abuse, but was an additional risk factor. Mr Deetman writes that this requirement makes priests vulnerable to transgressive behaviour. The inquiry feels that those who, often in their formative years, decided to become priests did not fully realise what their choice would entail.
For its investigation, the Deetman Inquiry studied the archives of dioceses, religious orders and congregations. It held a large-scale survey, studied international literature on the subject and met numerous current and former church officials.
Chesal and Dohmen
The inquiry was prompted by reports published by investigative journalists Robert Chesal from Radio Netherlands Worldwide and his colleague Joep Dohmen from national newspaper NRC Handelsblad. In February 2010, they published a report on abuse by the Salesian Fathers at the Don Rua boarding school in 's-Heerenberg in the 1960s. It was later followed by reports on other Catholic institutions.
“Little promise for the future”
Victims’ organisation Klokk says the conclusions of the Deetman Inquiry are even more shocking than they had expected. Klokk says the passive attitude of the Roman Catholic Church “holds little promise for the future.”
The Dutch bishops and the Conference of Members of Dutch Religious Orders have announced they will hold a press conference on Friday afternoon.
Also read: Covering the Catholic sex abuse cover-up
(gsh/rk)
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Of course the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church knew for decades that children were being molested, raped and sodomized by members of the clergy! In 1982, the Vatican sent out a directive to ALL of the bishops on this planet instructing them how to handle cases of abuse. The document was called "Crimen Sollicitationis!" Google it in your native language. In it you will find how the Vatican was more concerned with protecting the Church and Her priests from SCANDAL than She was in protecting innocent children and teens. The Vatican also instructed the bishops how to use intimidation tactics and the threat of eternal damnation if "secrets" about Pedophile Priests or Nuns were ever revealed. I encourage all to Goggle "Crimen" and read it! The Vatican has absolutely no defense. She is guilty as evidenced by Her own directives!
Of course the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church knew for decades that children were being molested, raped and sodomized by members of the clergy! In 1982, the Vatican sent out a directive to ALL of the bishops on this planet instructing them how to handle cases of abuse. The document was called "Crimen Sollicitationis!" Google it in your native language. In it you will find how the Vatican was more concerned with protecting the Church and Her priests from SCANDAL than She was in protecting innocent children and teens. The Vatican also instructed the bishops how to use intimidation tactics and the threat of eternal damnation if "secrets" about Pedophile Priests or Nuns were ever revealed. I encourage all to Goggle "Crimen" and read it! The Vatican has absolutely no defense. She is guilty as evidenced by Her own directives!
Oh dear, oh dear a double posting incase you didn't get the first one quite right. It's a shame that people like Ms Guzman are allowed to propogate lies and misrepresent facts such as citing the document "Crimen Solliciationis" and present it as fact. The one thing that she has done correctly though is ask people to Google it and they can then check for themselves what the document is all about and why and to whom it was written. If you do this you will notice immediately that the document was written in 1962 and repeated information made available in 1922 not 1982 (Guzman is a mere 20 years out or 60 whichever way you want to loook at it before she gets beyond the second line!). I don't wish to be rude to Ms Guzman but I have read the document in full and I would say one thing for sure - judging by what you have written you have no chance of having any understanding of it. It is written in legalise style and needs to be explained in order to make any sense of it. I had to refer to several sites to get my head around it and as I suspected Guzman has got the issue about the document completely wrong. For those who require a formative summary I recommend http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0325.htm this should enable you to make an informed opinion. Ms Guzman is of course welcome to read the text too.
La verdad, pienso que si es una vergüenza, pero, todas esta situaciones se dan en el mundo entero, sólo que aún permanencen ocultas, uno oye cosas de esas casi tod el tiempo.
The truth, I think that it's such a shame, but, all these situations are on the whole world, just they stay concealed, one heards things like those the whole time.
La verdad, pienso que si es una vergüenza, pero, todas esta situaciones se dan en el mundo entero, sólo que aún permanencen ocultas, uno oye cosas de esas casi tod el tiempo.
The truth, I think that it's such a shame, but, all these situations are on the whole world, just they stay concealed, one heards things like those the whole time.
Its the shame of whole world. Time make change as well as will change. Knipmachine
Time to start dismantling this disgusting institution. Filling their pockets, tax free, whilst raping children. Rape and abuse of anyone would not be tolerated by any other organisation and the reports that they are willing to pay cash for their shame just means they can shut people up and carry on regardless. I wonder what Jesus would have thought of all this abuse, lies and marble and gold lined palaces, it bears nothing of his message.
I have re-read your post three times and I'm sure now that you are more interested in being anti-Catholic than anti-child abuse. Perhaps if you google "Child Abuse Scouts" or "Child Abuse State Run Schools" you may get an insight into the level and type of abuse that is taking place all around you to which you blissfully ignorant - sweet. If you have to "wonder" what Jesus would have thought of all this abuse then you are neither conversant with his teachings or His Church. With that in mind why on earth did you bother posting????
Shame.
What a shame!
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