Women who were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy when they were children can submit their reports to the Deetman Commission from Tuesday.
Radio Netherland Worldwide
Published on 22 May 2012 – 11:26am
Their reports will form part of a new inquiry by the commission, which so far has limited its inquiry to the abuse of young boys in Catholic boarding schools and seminaries.
The women have until 1 July to submit their reports.
“The independent inquiry will focus on the sexual abuse of, and psychological violence against, under-aged women in the Roman Catholic Church between 1945 and the present day,” a spokesperson said.
The commission, led by former government minister Wim Deetman, is carrying out its inquiry at the behest of parliament.
(gsh/imm)
© Radio Netherlands Worldwide
This is bizarre. Good, but bizarre.
The first inquiry was into abuse of boys in Catholic boarding schools and seminaries.
Now the Dietman commission is inviting women who enured clerical sexual abuse as minors to come forward. That is good. I am sure there will be a goodly number.
But what of boys who were neither in a boarding school or seminary but were nonetheless abused by a Roman Catholic priest? Will there be occasion for them to speak out I am sure there would be a goodly number of them too.
I’m not up to date on the Dutch situation, but I’m surprised by all this. When you think of sex abuse of priests, you think of their abuse of “boys”. But we have seen in this site situations and sexual priest abuse stories from women who were girls at the time.
Why does it take an inquiry in the Netherlands? Abuse is abuse. The RC Catholic Church has abusive priests everywhere….and they are being taken to task everywhere. Why are now women suddenly allowed to tell their story here?
Sylvia, I find as the story of sexual abuse unfolds daily here and in the news, it is clear to me that people are definitely seeing the light when it comes to the importance of speaking out and identifying their abusers. It also tells me that the priesthood needs to look deeply into its members and ask what the hell is happening. I spoke to a priest recently who said to me he is just as much shocked and angered as I am…..and saddened by it all. One particular priest friend of his he knew for 35 years and never suspected anything. When the story broke, he became numb he told me. As if it all wasn’t bad enough, he never suspected his friend at all….and somehow that made it all worse. He said all eyes were on him. I think every priest is feeling vulnerable.
When he made these comments….and keep in mind Bishop Lahey was his Bishop too…..I could see the sadness and bewilderment in his face. But that’s as much as he would speak to me about it.
I hope he reads this and makes a comment. I mentioned this site. I think we need to see less Church-defensive battles in the courts (RE jury awards brothers 700,000) and more mea culpa and redirection of monies to victims. As for the priesthood…….I’ll save that comment for another time.
(received your letter)
I don’t know what the issue is in the Netherlands, and why reporting of either gender would would be restricted or encouraged. I can perhaps understand that a number of allegations from a boarding school might prompt an investigation into boarding schools, as was apparently done by the Deetman commission, but I fail to see why, in opening beyond the boy’s boarding schools, they are inviting only females to report. I think it’s a great idea to encourage women who endured child sex abuse at the hands of a priest to speak up, but I also think it is a great idea to encourage men who were neither at a boarding school nor seminary but were abused by priests to speak up.
Perhaps something has been lost in getting the story out to the public?