An independent commission chaired by Wim Deetman, a former Dutch government minister, jointly commissioned by the Dutch Bishops' Conference and the Conference of Dutch Religious to investigate sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands from 1945 onward. Its final report, released December 2011, drew on complaints from roughly 1,795 people who came forward directly to the commission, naming about 800 priests, brothers, pastors or lay church employees, about 105 of whom were still alive at publication. A companion survey of 34,000 respondents, commissioned as part of the same investigation, estimated that as many as 20,000 children may have experienced some form of sexual abuse in a Dutch Catholic institution between 1945 and 1981, a population estimate distinct from the roughly 800 people the commission's direct complaints named. The commission found the problem had been on the agenda of the Dutch bishops' own meetings since the 1940s, describing the church's failure as inadequate supervision and inadequate action rather than ignorance.
Facts
Documented Findings
Accused DocumentedNamed in complaints from roughly 1,795 people who came forward directly to the commission; about 105 of the 800 were reported still alive at publication. Allegations Documented Key FindingComplaints from about 1,795 people named roughly 800 priests, brothers, pastors and lay church employees. A companion survey of 34,000 respondents estimated up to 20,000 children may have experienced some form of sexual abuse in a Dutch Catholic institution, 1945 to 1981. 1 Inquiry Profile
Kind of RecordChurch-Commissioned Report 1 Jurisdiction Commissioned ByDutch Bishops' Conference and Conference of Dutch Religious 1 Publication Year Period Covered, From Disputed
Victim EstimateA population survey extrapolation (34,000 respondents), not a count of individually verified victims, and scoped to a narrower sub-period, 1945 to 1981, than the commission's own wider 1945 to 2010 investigation window. Kept distinct from the 800 accused figure above, which is the commission's own direct-complaint count. Learn More
The Deetman Commission and the Dutch Church's Own Reckoning
Unlike the government inquiries in Ireland, Australia and the United States, the Dutch investigation into Catholic clergy abuse began as a church initiative. In 2010 the Dutch Bishops' Conference and the Conference of Dutch Religious jointly asked Wim Deetman, a former government minister with no clerical role, to chair an independent commission and go looking for what the church itself had allowed to happen since 1945.
The commission's final report, released in December 2011, rested on two distinct kinds of evidence, and it kept them carefully separate. Complaints brought directly to the commission named roughly 800 priests, brothers, pastors and lay employees, about 105 of them still alive at the time. Separately, a survey of 34,000 respondents, commissioned as part of the same investigation, produced a population estimate: as many as 20,000 children may have experienced some form of sexual abuse in a Dutch Catholic institution between 1945 and 1981, a far larger figure built from statistical extrapolation rather than individually verified cases.
The commission's sharpest finding was about knowledge, not scale. It established that the problem of clergy abuse had been discussed at meetings of the Dutch bishops themselves as early as the 1940s, decades before any public reckoning began. The church's failure, the commission concluded, was not that it did not know. It was that knowing, it still did not adequately supervise or act.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.