Dutch Catholic Church Has Spent ˆ3m on Compensating Abuse Victims

Dutch News
February 27, 2014

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/02/dutch_catholic_church_has_spen.php

The sexual abuse scandal has so far cost the Dutch Catholic church over ˆ8m in research costs and compensation payments to victims.

Most of the money has gone on the massive research project led by Wim Deetman into the scale of the problem.

The report, published in 2011, concluded at least 800 Roman Catholic priests and monks were involved in abusing children in their care between 1945 and 1985.

In total, ˆ3m has been paid in compensation to victims, according to the Church’s annual accounts and quoted by news agency ANP. It is the first time the church has published its annual accounts and the figures cover 2012, ANP says.

The report also shows the Church is in financial difficulty in the Netherlands and made a loss of ˆ4.3m in 2012, partly due to declining income from individual churches.