A Dutch commission investigating sexual abuse by Roman Catholic
priests has found an unusually high number of deaths of minors at a
church-run hospital in the early 1950s, the public prosecutor said.
A
statement by the prosecutor's office today reported "a considerably
higher number of deaths . . . of minors" at the psychiatric hospital
than in other years, but gave no details.
NOS television reported that the commission had found records of 34 deaths in 1952-54.
The
independent commission, which has uncovered about 2,000 reports of
sexual abuse of minors by Dutch Catholic clergy since 1945, learned in
May of the deaths at the Saint Joseph psychiatric hospital in the
southeastern town of Heel.
The death cases were known to the local
Catholic diocese in Roermond as well as to labour inspectors, a
Catholic child protection agency and probably a public health inspector
by the late 1950s, the statement said.
The Roermond diocese issued
a statement welcoming the decision by the commission - led by former
education minister Wim Deetman, a Protestant - to report the deaths to
the prosecutor's office after finding them in its archives.
The
diocese added it would not provide any details to the public. "That is
for the Deetman commission and the prosecutor's office," it said.
The
prosecutor's office unveiled a fact-finding inquiry after the
commission informed it of the deaths.
The office said it will make no
further announcements until the inquiry is finished towards the end of
this year.
It was not clear whether the deaths were directly
linked to the sexual abuse crisis rocking the Catholic Church in
Ireland, The Netherlands and other European countries in recent years.
The
scandals have brought to light several thousand complaints of abuse,
elicited public apologies by Pope Benedict and led to the resignations
of five European bishops - three in Ireland and one each in Belgium and
Germany.
An inquiry in Belgium said at least 13 abuse victims
committed suicide after their complaints to church authorities fell on
deaf ears.
The Dutch commission proposed in June that the Church
should pay compensation of between €5,000 and €100,000 each to victims
who were sexually abused while in its care.
Mr Deetman has
appealed to perpetrators to turn themselves in because almost all of the
2,000 complaints concerned cases that occurred decades ago and are thus
beyond the legal statute of limitations.