Public Prosecution Service institutes fact finding inquiry
THE HAGUE, 16 August 2011 – The commission of inquiry into the sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic church, in its research of the archives, has encountered information relating to a considerably higher number of deaths than in other years in the former Roman Catholic psychiatric institution St Joseph in Heel. As reported earlier, the commission is conducting an inquiry for one thing into the archives of dioceses, orders and congregations.
The information concerns a number of deaths of minors that was above the annual average in a certain period in the years 1952, 1953 and 1954. The information on the matter was known to the relevant diocese of Roermond as well as the labour inspectorate and the then Catholic child protection organisation and probably a public health inspector towards the end of the fifties. The commission will of course incorporate any relevant information in its report that it hopes to present towards the end of the year.
For further investigation that is beyond the remit of the commission the chairman drs. W.J. (Wim) Deetman informed the Public Prosecution Service of the matter on 23 May 2011. The commission handed over the relevant documents to the Public Prosecution Service on 31 May after a short briefing. The Public Prosecution Service then instituted a fact finding inquiry. Pending this inquiry the commission will make no further statements on the matter. The commission is also informing the diocese of Roermond of the matter; the bishop's see indicated that it also keen to view the information passed on to the Public Prosecution Service.
The commission’s independent inquiry is bringing to light the nature, scale and circumstances of the sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic church in the Netherlands and the responsibilities for these, as well as the repercussions for the victims and their families and friends. Besides analysing reports of sexual abuse and/or physical violence, and the statements of perpetrators, the commission’s remit, as given by the Conference of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and the Dutch Religious Conference, includes surveys, in-depth interviews, case studies, a study of the international literature and research in the archives. The commission has previously informed the Public Prosecution Service of nine notifications of sexual abuse that had been received by the commission which could be offences that are not statute-barred.
Download the press release (89 kB)
Sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church
THE HAGUE, 17 February 2011 – The Commission chairman Drs W.J. (Wim) Deetman calls upon perpetrators of sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands (RKK) to come forward. He has asked the Conference of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and the Dutch Religious Conference to announce this appeal in their own organisations. Perpetrators have until 4 April to report to the commission. It is important that they come forward for the independent work of the commission.
Mr Deetman explains in his appeal that the information provided by perpetrators can help the commission of inquiry to acquire a more complete picture of the nature and the scale of the sexual abuse, the circumstances in which the abuse was able to occur and the way in which those in positions of responsibility acted or failed to act.
The commission’s definition of perpetrators is people who are working or have worked for the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands.
Mr Deetman refers in his appeal ‘To all those concerned’, to a list of perpetrators already in the commission’s possession. The commission has compiled the list primarily on the basis of the 2005 notifications of sexual abuse and/or physical violence that the commission received: ‘These statements frequently contain numerous details about the nature of the abuse and the circumstances but also about fellow victims, witnesses and perpetrators’.
Analysis of these reports is of great help to the commission in the specific questioning of perpetrators. The commission will be interviewing a number of perpetrators to gather more information. The first interviews with perpetrators whose names and contact details are known to the commission will take place in March. A number of perpetrators had already voluntarily reported to the commission earlier.
Although the commission's inquiry is not intended for collecting data for a subsequent judicial inquiry it is possible of course that the commission will notify offences that are not statute-barred to the Public Prosecution Service. Six anonymised notifications have meanwhile been put forward for review to the Public Prosecution Service.
In his appeal Deetman addresses perpetrators in the context of their background and faith: ‘Given the perpetrators’ church background I am assuming that each of them feels the need to own up to their victims, their social surroundings and themselves. It is above all with this in mind that I am making an urgent appeal to the perpetrators to come forward and report to the commission’.
Perpetrators can report to the commission up to Monday 4 April 2011 via the e-mail address reactie@onderzoekrk.nl and via the commission's postal address: P.O. Box 556 2511 CN Den Haag.
The Deetman commission inquiry has been commissioned by the Conference of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and the Dutch Religious Conference. The commission’s remit is to take stock of the nature, scale and circumstances of the sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church and the responsibilities for these, as well as the repercussions for the victims and their families and friends.
The inquiry will also be carrying out surveys, in depth interviews, case studies, a study of the international literature and research in the archives in addition to the analysis of the statements of perpetrators and the notifications of sexual abuse and/or physical violence. The commission hopes to present its final report towards the end of this year.
Download the press release (10 kB)
Commission of inquiry into sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church recommends:
THE HAGUE, 9 December 2010 – The commission conducting an inquiry into the allegations of sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic church recommends transforming the existing agency Help & Justice into an organisation comprising a complaints committee, a reporting centre for complaints and a professional centre of expertise. The centre should be staffed by experts who can refer complainants requiring help to the appropriate agencies.
The commission chaired by Drs. W.J. (Wim) Deetman has made this recommendation in a report for the Conference of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and the Dutch Religious Conference, which commissioned the inquiry. The report, entitled ‘Towards help, compensation, disclosure and transparency’ is based in part on an analysis of the work of Help & Justice, the institution established by the Catholic hierarchy in April 1995. For more details of this analysis, see press release 4b (‘Shortcomings of Help & Justice demand substantial improvement’).
In its report, the commission of inquiry advocates a ‘small, but professionally equipped organisation’ that ‘can help notifiers and complainants and refer them to different forms of help’. The role of the Centre of Expertise on Sexual Abuse in the Roman Catholic Church would be to facilitate groups of victims, enable meetings for groups of victims and also direct relatives of victims to agencies that can provide help. The need for these services emerged from the numerous discussions conducted by the commission in the last few months.
According to the report, the centre of expertise should be staffed by a number of professional consultants whose practical expertise and familiarity with the full range of services available in mental health care enables them to refer complainants in need of help to the appropriate institution.
The commission has already approached various organisations that individuals could be referred to: four specialist mental health care institutions and Victim Aid Netherlands. The organisations have already promised their cooperation. The centre of expertise can also refer victims to pastoral help as required.
In the commission’s view, the centre of expertise should also arrange counselling and support for victims in individual dioceses. The centre should associate itself with platforms and research centres concerned with the issue of help for victims of sexual abuse.
Only persons who have made an official complaint to the Roman Catholic church will be eligible to receive assistance through the centre of expertise. In that context, the commission agrees with the definitions adopted by Help & Justice’s complaints office for a ‘report’ (notification) and a ‘complaint’, which requires an official investigation.
The commission of inquiry feels that the procedure for dealing with complaints of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church is open to criticism by comparison with those of other institutions in society. The ‘cornerstone’ of the new complaints procedure must be disclosure, the commission feels, including transparency concerning ‘the way in which bishops and superiors deal with recommendations and decisions made during the complaints procedure’.
For example, the complaints committee (currently called the Assessment and Advisory Commission) should publish an annual report on the internet. The annual report should contain an anonymous list of reports it has received, complaints it has received and dealt with, its rulings and recommendations and the decisions it has made on how the bishop or superior should implement the recommendations.
The complaints committee should also be the subject of an independent external evaluation every year. The evaluation should explicitly review the implementation of the recommendations of the complaints committee by the church hierarchy. In that context, the evaluation should concentrate ‘on the question of whether disciplinary sanctions have been imposed where complaints have been upheld and, if so, how such decisions relate to the recommendations made’. The commission recommends that this evaluation should also be published.
Under its articles of association, the complaints committee would be an advisory body to the Conference of Bishops, the report goes on. Every year the committee should have a meeting with the Conference of Bishops and the Dutch Religious Conference to discuss its annual report, the meta-themes to emerge from complaints and recommendations and the support it requires. The complaints committee should have a secretariat and the Roman Catholic Church should provide sufficient financial resources for the organisation to perform its work.
Decisions of the complaints committee will be final. If the committee upholds a complaint, the facts and circumstances will also be taken as established and they can no longer disputed when it comes to determining damages. The bishop or superior will notify a complainant, the complaints committee and the public (through a statement on internet), within a prescribed period, and stating reasons whether and, if so, to what extent he/she will comply with a decision of the complaints committee. The bishop or superior should also inform a complainant of the possibilities for appealing against that decision, according to the report.
Complainants who request financial compensation would be able to bring a claim before the civil courts or, in accordance with Help & Justice’s procedure, before an independent external commission. However, that commission does not yet exist. The Roman Catholic Church did recently install the Lindenbergh advisory committee. The commission of inquiry urgently recommends that the Lindenbergh committee ‘makes recommendations as soon as possible on the method of handling claims for damages and compensation’’ at every level in the Roman Catholic Church ‘.
The commission feels that it is conceivable that the Roman Catholic church will offer a collective settlement for complainants who seek damages and compensation. Individual complainants who seek damages or compensation and do not agree with what they are offered in a collective settlement will be able to bring their case to the courts.
The commission of inquiry recommends that bishops and superiors accept responsibility ‘for the suffering caused to many people by sexual abuse’. For that reason, according to the commission, they should not ‘rely on the defence of the statue of limitations on the question of (financial) compensation’.
Bishops and superiors are obliged to report cases of sexual abuse known to them to the complaints committee. Any suspicion of a criminal offence that has not yet been barred from prosecution by the lapse of time must be reported to the public prosecution service. The reports and complaints that have been received also include cases that are not barred from prosecution by lapse of time. The commission strenuously recommends that these cases be reported as soon as possible. If the time limit for prosecuting a case has not expired and there is a conviction in the case, the court’s ruling can then be used in the settlement of the individual’s claim for damages or compensation.
The commission of inquiry is currently analysing the reports of sexual abuse, which could be submitted to the commission for the purposes of its inquiry up until the end of last month. Since the middle of March of this year, the commission has received approximately 1,350 reports of sexual abuse and/or physical violence. The commission has also received around 1,225 reports from Help & Justice. The commission had already received around 600 of those reports itself. Its inquiry will therefore be based in part on this total of roughly 1,975 reports. The commission has already referred five reports anonymously to the public prosecution service for evaluation.
The reports submitted to the commission are essential for its independent inquiry. In addition to an analysis of all the reports, the investigation will also include in-depth interviews, a survey, an appeal to culprits to come forward (first quarter of 2011), an international literature study, a questionnaire and an investigation in the archives.
The purpose of the commission’s inquiry is to identify the nature, scale and circumstances of sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church and accountability for it, as well as the consequences for the victims and their families. The commission hopes to present the final report of its inquiry at the end of 2011. Last May, Mr Deetman said in his proposal for the inquiry that the report presented here should receive priority. The commission formally commenced its work in August.
Commission of inquiry into sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church concludes:
THE HAGUE, 9 December 2010 – The commission conducting an inquiry into the allegations of sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church recommends significant improvements in the help offered to victims and the handling of complaints. The mandate and the organisation of the existing agency Help & Justice are complex, with conflicts of interests, opposing structures and a level of ambition that the institution is unable to meet in practice, according to the commission.
The commission’s advisory report entitled ‘Towards help, compensation, disclosure and transparency’ about help for victims and the handling of complaints is based in part on an analysis of Help & Justice. For a summary of the main points of the commission’s report, see press release 4a (‘Centre of expertise on help for victims of sexual abuse’).
In its report, the commission notes that Help & Justice’s Assessment and Advisory Commission acts independently of the Roman Catholic Church and that, like the management and staff of Help & Justice, it performs its work ‘with great dedication and integrity’. According to the commission, the staff of Help & Justice are ‘convinced’ of the seriousness of sexual abuse.
The commission observes that Help & Justice has a ‘complex mandate’: to offer help and justice; to provide care for complainants and accused; to apply Dutch civil law and canon law. Furthermore, the commission finds: ‘Having two committees (each with its own chairperson and each with its own staff) has a paralysing and confusing effect on an organisation’. The organisational structure of Help & Justice ‘is an obstacle to transparency and accountability, internally and externally,’ according to the commission.
By virtue of an amendment to its articles of association in 2007, Help & Justice, which was established by the Catholic hierarchy in April 1995, was not only to provide help and deal with complaints in specific cases. The institution would also have to conduct research and perform studies into sexual abuse and publish general advisory reports on policies for bishops and superiors. Its articles of association provide that Help & Justice is a centre of expertise on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church. The commission concludes: ‘Help & Justice has in practice been unable to meet the expectations in performing that role.’
In the spring of this year, Help & Justice was confronted with a steep rise in the number of reports it received. Between 1995 and 2009, Help & Justice received 286 reports; an average of twenty a year. During that period, those reports led to 141 complaints; an average of nine a year. In 2010, up until 23 November, it received almost 1,800 reports, 241 of them complaints.
The commission of inquiry finds: ‘The large number of reports in 2010 overwhelmed the institution, which was not equipped to cope with them. There were no directives or protocols, nor any guidelines for registering and handling reactions, the follow-up and the action to be taken. The staff of the agency had to fend for themselves’. In May, the management of Help & Justice recruited a director ad interim and the first steps were taken to re-organise and clear the backlog. ‘The situation had more or less returned to normal in September’.
The commission feels that the management of Help & Justice waited too long ‘to deal professionally with these reports and complaints. The administrative records were certainly not in order for too long. This created an additional breeding ground for the mistrust of Help & Justice. The management is responsible, was aware of the seriousness of the situation, responded inadequately and is therefore at fault.
The commission of inquiry recommends significant improvements on the current situation with regard to the help offered to victims and the handling of complaints (the main points of which are presented in press release 4a). The improvements must include the following items:
The commission describes disclosure as the ‘cornerstone’ of this approach, ‘including transparency concerning the way in which bishops and superiors deal with recommendations and decisions made during the complaints procedure’.
The commission of inquiry is aware that implementation of these recommendations in the near future will involve a great deal of work. It is for this reason that the commission advises those commissioning the inquiry [the Conference of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and the Dutch Religious Conference] to call in someone to prepare the ground for a resolute execution of its recommendations.
Later in 2011, the commission of inquiry will investigate whether and to what extent its recommendations have been followed and whether they are having the desired effect. To this end, the Conference of Bishops and the Dutch Religious Conference will submit a report to the commission before 1 July 2011. ‘In it, they will say whether and, if so, how they have adopted and implemented these recommendations.’ On the basis of that report, the commission’s final report will include proposals on whether the recommended organisation should be an ecclesiastical body or an independent foundation.
For any press-related questions, please contact Gert Jan Verhoog.
T 06 – 52 53 98 97
E g.j.verhoog@gmail.com
