The Netherlands' most senior Catholic leader, summoned to a court
hearing Tuesday in the case of a man who said he was drugged and raped
by his priest two decades ago, said sexual abuse "did not exist" as an
issue for the Dutch church until the early 1990s.
Cardinal
Adrianus Simonis said the Dutch Catholic hierarchy only began dealing
with the issue after reports of widespread abuse began emerging from the
United States in the 1990s.
"For us, it did not exist," Simonis said.
Some
2,000 cases of sexual abuse are being investigated by an independent
commission set up last year when reports of abuse in the church
snowballed around the world. It is headed by a former government
minister, Wim Deetman.
But the Dutch church, which has more than 4
million members, first set up a body to deal with abuse allegations in
1995.
The organization, known as Help and Law, still exists, but is
being reformed after Deetman last year said its structure "hindered
transparency and accountability."
Simonis was archbishop of
Utrecht from 1983 to 2007, and was created a cardinal in 1985. Now 79
and retired, his brief appearance in the Middelburg District Court
marked the first time such a senior cleric had appeared in a Dutch
courtroom to answer questions on abuse in the church.
Simonis said he had no role in the appointment or dismissal of the priest accused of drugging and raping a young man.
The
victim, Dave ten Hoor, says he was abused twice by the priest,
identified only as Father Jan N., in 1989 and 1990 in the southern town
of Terneuzen, Ten Hoor's lawyer Martin de Witte told The Associated
Press.
De Witte said he expects at least one more alleged abuse victim
to join the case.
Ten Hoor was not present at Tuesday's hearing, which was not a trial.
De
Witte says he is trying to find out how much church authorities knew
about Father Jan's abuse to establish whether he can sue for
compensation.
"I do not know him at all," Simonis said of Father Jan.
Simonis
has been drawn into the case because before moving to Terneuzen Father
Jan also allegedly abused children at a youth centre run by the Salesian
order in Rijswijk, a town just outside The Hague.
At the time, Simonis
was Bishop of Rotterdam and Rijswijk fell within his diocese.
However,
the Cardinal said he had visited the centre just once for a party and
did not recall meeting the priest, though he did not rule out that he
may have been introduced to him.
In testimony earlier this month, a
Salesian leader told the court his order did not tell Catholic
officials of Father Jan's history of abuse when he was appointed a
priest in Terneuzen.
Wearing a grey suit and clergyman's white
collar, Simonis walked with the help of a cane into the courtroom and
asked the judge to speak up as he was hard of hearing. He entered and
left the court building via a rear goods entrance.
Simonis said he
did not want to discuss broader issues of sex abuse in the Catholic
church, "as I don't want to get in the way of the Deetman commission."
Simonis told the court he has spoken to Deetman, but did not elaborate.
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