Dutch Apologise for Abuse, by Alan Cowell, Sydney Morning Herald, December 18, 2011

Dutch Apologise for Abuse

By Alan Cowell
Sydney Morning Herald
December 18, 2011

http://www.smh.com.au/world/dutch-apologise-for-abuse-20111217-1ozu7.html

Wim Deetman, chairman of the Dutch investigating Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Roman Catholic church found 'tens of thousands' of victims since 1945 with 800 alleged perpetrators. Photo: Reuters

CATHOLIC bishops in the Netherlands have offered ''sincere apologies'' to victims of sexual mistreatment, after a report by an official commission said church officials had ''failed to adequately deal with'' abuse, including rape, affecting as many as 20,000 children in Catholic institutions.

It remained unclear whether the report broke significant new ground in the debate over the relationship between sexual abuse and Catholic institutions.

Based on a survey of 34,000 people, the report said 10 per cent of Dutch children had suffered from some form of abuse - a proportion that doubled to 20 per cent among children who had spent some of their youth in institutions, irrespective of their affiliation.

Referring to the probability of minors being sexually abused in institutions rather than in any other location, the report said: ''It emerged that the risk was twice as high as the national average, but with no sufficient difference between Roman Catholic and non-Roman Catholic institutions.''

And, tacitly supporting an argument offered frequently by the Vatican, it said that the impression in media coverage ''that sexual abuse of minors occurred primarily within the Roman Catholic Church needs to be qualified. Sexual abuse of minors occurs widely in Dutch society''.

Sexual abuse, the report said, ''was covered up'' and measures to prevent or punish it ''were not taken in order to avoid any further scandal''.

''The scale of sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church in the period 1945 to 2010 is relatively small in percentage terms, but is a serious problem in absolute numbers,'' the report concluded.

The report said the commission had received 1800 reports of abuse at Catholic schools, seminaries and orphanages as it gathered evidence between March and December 2010.