A commission investigating abuse of children linked to Dutch Roman
Catholic institutions says girls were sexually abused by members of the
clergy in their homes and in church, while they suffered physical abuse
and intimidation at the hands of nuns at homes for young women.
The
report follows a previous study focused on boys, which found boys were
especially vulnerable to sexual abuse in boarding schools.
The commission, led by former Hague mayor Wim Deetman, was funded by
the Catholic church. In preliminary conclusions in December 2011 it
estimated that up to 20,000 children were molested at Catholic boarding
schools between 1945 and 2010, and “several tens of thousands” faced
abuse of some kind.
Monday’s follow-up study focused more on
Catholic girls and young women, who in addition to boarding schools were
often sent to homes for unwed mothers run by nuns if they became
pregnant without being married.
“In cases of physical violence
without sexual abuse, both new and previous complaints point toward
primarily female perpetrators, mostly nuns who worked as educators or
caregivers,” Deetman wrote in his conclusions.
“In heavy cases of sexual abuse, the perpetrators were primarily male.”
The
commission has already turned over to police only the handful of abuse
cases it has uncovered that it thinks may be prosecutable. It recommends
mediation for the rest.
In a response, the umbrella organization of the Dutch Catholic Church and religious institutions apologized.
“Not
only the doers are blameworthy, but also those who were to ensure
things went properly in the homes and institutions where the girls were
sheltered,” they said in a statement. “Violating the physical and
spiritual integrity of any person, especially that of children, is under
all circumstances repulsive.”
They said they would now consider how exactly to offer mediation and help to victims.
In
February, newspaper NRC Handelsblad estimated the Church has so far
committed to pay around 30-million euro ($40 million) in damages to
victims identified by the commission.