Dutch Boys and Young Men Who Accused Priests of Sexual Abuse in the '50s Were Surgically Castrated 'To Get Rid of Homosexuality,' Journalist Finds

By David Boroff
New York Daily News
March 21, 2012

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/dutch-boys-young-men-accused-priests-sexual-abuse-50s-surgically-castrated-rid-homosexuality-journalist-finds-article-1.1048001

Dutch authorities are going investigate possible atrocities in the church going back to the 1950s.

Dutch boys and young men who accused priests of sex abuse in the 1950s were surgically castrated "to get rid of homosexuality" while in the care of the church, an investigative journalist has found.

Joep Dohmen of the NRC Handelsblad, a daily newspaper in the Netherlands, discovered evidence of at least 10 castrations by the Dutch Roman Catholic Church.

"These cases are anonymous and can no longer be traced," Dohman told The Telegraph newspaper of London. "There will be many more. But the question is whether those boys, now old men, will want to tell their story."

Dohman did discover the identity of one of the victims, a young man named Henk Heithuis, who was castrated at the age of 20 in 1956 after accusing clergymen of abusing him.

The surgical castration was regarded as a treatment for homosexuality and also as a punishment for those who accused clergy of abuse, sources told Dohmen. Two clergyman were eventually convicted of abusing Heithuis.

After reporting the abuse, Heithuis spent time at two different hospitals, The Telegraph reports.

"We once asked Henk to drop his pants when the women were gone," family friend Cornelius Rogge told The Telegraph. "He did that. He was maimed totally. It was a huge shock."

Rogge, now 79, told the Telegraph that he reported the castration to officials investigating abuse within the Catholic Church, but says he was ignored.

Heithuis died in a car cash in 1958, but Dutch authorities are now hoping to find victims willing to tell their stories as they launch a new investigation.