On 21 December, a man from Breda in the south of the Netherlands reported Cardinal Ad Simonis to the police for perjury.
The man says the cardinal lied to a court in Middelburg a year ago when he said he knew nothing of the abuse of children by Catholic clerics. Cardinal Simonis served as archbishop of Utrecht from 1983 to 2006.
The man, who says he was abused by a Salesian priest, went to the police as a result of the findings of the Deetman Commission which investigated child abuse in the Dutch Catholic Church. On an internet site he writes:
“I’m convinced that Simonis did indeed know about the abuse of children but didn’t say so during the hearing. He also knew about it at the time the abuse took place.”
Cardinal Simonis has gone on record as saying that he can remember about ten cases of the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. The Deetman Commission found that there were probably more cases and that, although he had no contact with the victims or perpetrators, he was indeed informed.
(mw)
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