Dutch diocese apologises for abuse committed by late bishop

The Tablet
April 15, 2014

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/679/0/dutch-diocese-apologises-for-abuse-committed-by-late-bishop

Roermond diocese in southern Holland has apologised for the sexual abuse of two boys by its former Bishop Johannes Gijsen, who served there from 1972 to 1993 and died last year.

The two cases were deemed well-founded by the commission investigating abuse claims in the Dutch Church and date back to the period 1958-1961, when Gijsen was a chaplain and teacher at a minor seminary.

The weekly Katholiek Nieuwsblad, which first reported the story, said the commission found Gijsen had improperly touched two boys and forced one to perform oral sex. He was confronted with the latter accusation in 2011 but denied knowing the accuser and sued him for defamation.

The case was closed at the time, but reopened a week after Gijsen died because the second victim had come forward. On review, the commission found his excuse was not credible because the victim's family had said he used to visit them.

Gijsen officially resigned as bishop of Roermond for health reasons, but later served as Bishop of Reykjavik from 1996 to 2007. An abuse inquiry there found him negligent for destroying a letter accusing a local priest of abuse.

The victims’ group Mea Culpa said it was "relieved" that the accusations were finally confirmed and noted it was "striking that complaints against living suspects are often certified unfounded.”

Bishop Frans Wiertz, current head of Roermond diocese, accepted the commission's findings and said he "regrets the abuse and suffering inflicted on the victims". He has met the two men and apologised to them, he said.

Gijsen was one of several strict conservative bishops whom the Vatican appointed in the Netherlands – often in spite of protests by priests and parishioners – to counter the strongly reformist turn that the Church there took in the 1960s.