Leading politicians in the Netherlands have called for the resignations of Catholic bishops in the wake of a damning report on sexual abuse in the Dutch church. On Dec. 17, 2011, Holland’s deputy prime minister, Maxime Verhagen, said the church has been “profoundly damaged” and bishops should consider resigning. Released on Dec. 16, 2011, the report found that somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 Dutch children suffered abuse, ranging from unwanted sexual advances to rape, during the period of 1945 to 2010. The vast majority of instances were never reported to police. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that his cabinet is considering lifting a statute of limitations to allow criminal prosecutions. A complaint has already been filed with the public prosecutor’s office against a former bishop of the Diocese of Rotterdam, Philippe Bär.
Calls for Dutch Bishops' Resignations
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
The contributions of Walter J. Ong, S.J., to American letters are countless, and he remains a renowned figure in the study of communications, literacy, group psychology and mass media.
We need more than cooler rhetoric. We need a politics for the common good.
If Trump is elected, Vance would be the second Catholic vice president in US history—after Joe Biden.
A group of American “Catholics and non-Catholics” and prominent cultural and intellectual personalities asked Pope Francis in an open letter July 15 not to further restrict the traditional Latin Mass.