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	Sex, Money and Bad Habits By Pearlie Joubert Mail & Guardian January 29, 2008 http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=330816&area=/insight/insight__national/ A Catholic priest who brought a defamation suit against a family which charged him with sexual misconduct involving their daughter, has withdrawn his case. In addition to charges of inappropriately touching girls, teenagers and women, 63-year-old Father Bernard van der Hulst, of the Fish Hoek parish, also frequents the Grand West casino so often that he qualified for a "Most Valued Guest" gold card. He has also been seen in the adult section of his local video shop reportedly hiring pornographic videos. Van der Hulst was allegedly under police investigation on at least seven charges of sexual misconduct involving young girls in Pretoria when the church transferred him to Fish Hoek about 20 years ago. A few years later, at least four more charges were laid with the police in Fish Hoek. The Archbishop of Cape Town, Lawrence Henry, says the church is only aware of two complaints against Van der Hulst. Henry says he received a letter shortly after he was appointed archbishop in 1990. It contained allegations of misconduct based on comments made by a woman who had already died. "It was impossible to verify these allegations and the best I could do was to promise to monitor Van der Hulst's situation," says Henry. "I would've thought that had such complaints been investigated by the police and substantiated, action would've been taken against him. There's no record of any such action having been taken against him," Henry said. But a former policeman and investigating officer, Detective Sergeant Leon Isaacson, then stationed with the child protection unit, was tasked with investigating the charges against Van der Hulst in the late Eighties. Isaacson says the unit did inform the church of the allegations against Van der Hulst. "It was between 1987 and 1989 and there were at least four families who laid complaints against Van der Hulst. All these cases involved Van der Hulst and young girls. While he was in Pretoria, between five and seven complaints were laid with the police against him that we knew of then," says Isaacson. Isaacson, who is now a businessman, remembers the Van der Hulst investigation as "very difficult because people didn't want to speak against him. The church community protected him. Families affected preferred to remove their children rather than continue pressing criminal charges because of the pressure they felt from the church and their loyalty towards the church." Isaacson started investigating Van der Hulst after he was contacted by a social worker employed by the church. "The social worker felt that something had to be done about Van der Hulst because the complaints against him were made over a long period and involved children and women." The Mail&Guardian contacted the social worker, who asked not to be named because of client-confidentiality considerations. Isaacson recalls: "After I started investigating this case, the church authorities — we dealt with the archbishop's office —called me in and said they're investigating these allegations themselves and it was not a matter they liked to deal with via the police. They asked me to back off, which we didn't". Isaacson says Van der Hulst was never charged because people were reluctant to testify against him. Henry said eight witnesses were interviewed by a four-person committee which investigated the allegations. "Of those [witnesses] interviewed, six spoke in favour of Father Van der Hulst … Ultimately this committee of senior priests concluded that the allegation of inappropriate and improper tactile behaviour on the part of Father Van der Hulst was unsubstantiated … I found myself in agreement with the committee's findings," Henry said. But this week Henry said that he has "urged Van der Hulst to resign as parish priest of Fish Hoek and to take a sabbatical. The fact that his continued presence in the parish was divisive with numbers of parishioners moving to other parishes was a cause of grave concern to me. But on each occasion he refused. As recently as last year, I once again raised this issue with him." Inappropriate Another parishioner, Sandy Haupt, also alleges that Father Bernard van der Hulst acted inappropriately. "After Mass Father Bernard came up to me outside the church from behind and put both his arms around me. I could feel his body against mine and I was most distressed by his behaviour. Not even my husband does this sort of thing in public." Haupt also does not want to speak, saying that she "does not attend church any more because of what happened". Papers filed also quote a young woman who allegedly saw Van der Hulst "take out a pornographic video — I think the title of the video was Emmanuelle", she wrote. — Pearlie Joubert Devoted mother speaks out The latest allegation of inappropriate behaviour against Father Bernard van der Hulst was made three years ago and details were obtained from documents filed in the Supreme Court in Cape Town in preparation for a defamation case brought by Van der Hulst against the family who complained to the church about him. In March 2004, Maria Wagener, a devout Catholic and devoted mother of six children, wrote a letter of complaint after Van der Hulst allegedly touched her then-teenage daughter inappropriately. In her letter, also sent to Archbishop of Cape Town Lawrence Henry, she wrote: "On Sunday 21 March a number of parishioners were gathered together outside the church after Mass. You approached my daughter and put your arm around her. As she has spoken about this to me on several occasions, I kept watching. "This is extremely difficult for me as a woman, and especially a mother to talk about. You went as far as to run your hand under her breast. I am well aware of the attitude of men to deny such a thing and to also say that it is the woman's/girl's imagination. I did not only witness this, but also saw how you pulled your hand away very quickly when you saw her father stepping out of the church. "I'd like you to know that nobody hugs my daughter or any of my children in such a manner. My child was in tears leaving Mass and vowed never to enter the church in Fish Hoek ever again as long as you are the parish priest," Wagener wrote to Van der Hulst and five other church officials. She went further: "I don't need to remind you that you have touched me on a part of my body that is totally out of bounds, namely my bottom." A month after Wagener wrote her letter to Van der Hulst and the archbishop, her husband, Michael Wagener, also wrote a letter to Archbishop Henry detailing six first-hand accounts of people complaining about the priest. Wagener, her husband, social workers and another member of the congregation, Maureen West, were sued for defamation by Van der Hulst. Shortly before the trial date — May 2007 — the case was withdrawn by Van der Hulst. In trial papers handed in by the Wageners, Grand West casino was subpoenaed to provide a detailed account of Van der Hulst's love of gambling. Van der Hulst claimed R300 000 from the defendants in his defamation case, which is almost the exact amount of money he lost at the casino in his 69 trips to Grand West since its opening in December 2000. The slot machine printout shows that Van der Hulst lost R298 596,85 and won only five times in six years — his winnings totalling R36 976,75. Van der Hulst qualified for gold-card status at the casino in May 2001. Van der Hulst receives a monthly income of about R1 200 and lost, on average, around R4 300 a month at the casino. Monsignor Andrew Barello, vicar general in Cape Town, says Van der Hulst "obviously has some personal means — it's certainly not church money he is gambling with. His family probably left him money. "The church would take the position that gambling per se is not bad, but the consequences are. It seems to me to be quite serious if he loses so much money." But chancellor of the archdiocese in Pretoria Monsignor Marc de Muelenaere says that although gambling is not mentioned by name in official rules, "priests should shun activities that are unseemly to the church. Gambling is unseemly." Van der Hulst refused to speak to the Mail&Guardian and referred questions to his advocate, Rodney Black. Black said the allegations against the priest were "malicious, vindictive and defamatory … should the parties who made these malicious and defamatory statements wish to compound the wrong by agreeing to the press repeating such defamatory matters, then they must be prepared to be publicly identified and obviously bear the consequences of their actions," Black said via fax. Asked where he receives the money he gambles with, Black said the priest "has no intention of debating his personal finances with the press". — Pearlie Joubert
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