Dutch cardinal charged with covering priest's abuse
February 10, 2011
A Dutch cardinal has been accused to covering up evidence of sexual abuse by a priest in the Utrecht archdiocese, and giving the priest new parish assignments even after he had been identified as an abuser.
Cardinal Adrianus Simonis—who drew criticism earlier this year when he claimed that Catholic bishops had not been aware of clerical abuse—reportedly gave parish assignments to the pedophile priest after sending him away for treatment. The priest then molested more children in his new parish.
Cardinal Simonis served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1983 to 2007, stepping down when he reached the canonical retirement age of 75.
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