Second Deceased Dutch Bishop Outed As Sexual Abuser

The Tablet
May 1, 2014

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/737/0/second-deceased-dutch-bishop-outed-as-sexual-abuser

A deceased Dutch bishop has been identified as a child molester in the second such admission in as many weeks. Utrecht archdiocese, where Johannes Nienhaus was auxiliary bishop from 1982 to 1999, said a commission investigating the scandals had confirmed four complaints against him.

Earlier in April, Roermond diocese said its late bishop Johannes Gijsen had sexually abused two boys, also decades ago.

The Amsterdam daily De Volkskrant, which uncovered the story, said the abuse took place from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s when Nienhaus was chaplain and later rector of a junior seminary in Apeldoorn. Utrecht Cardinal Johannes Eijk, its current archbishop, took note of the four cases reported by the abuse commission and stressed they took place before Nienhaus was a bishop.

The diocese's statement made clear the cases were being reported in response to queries from De Volkskrant, which said they had been confirmed by the abuse commission two years ago but not made public by the archdiocese at the time. Two years ago, a Dutch Catholic school association named the Nienhaus Foundation after the bishop changed its name because of the accusations against him.

"Cardinal Eijk is sad that this abuse occurred and hopes the determination of the complaints' plausibility can help the healing process of the victims," the statement said. The newspaper said Nienhaus had indecently touched boys.