Dutch cardinal charged with covering priest's abuse

CWN - 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.

Additional sources for this story
Some links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus:

Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach five million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you!

Easter Campaign:
Progress toward our Spring 2013 goal ($34,555 to go):
$80,000.00 $45,444.82
43% 57%
Sound Off! CatholicCulture.org supporters weigh in.

All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!

There are no comments yet for this item.

Catholic World News Email Newsletter
Donate to Support this Site: Your contribution will be put to good work.
Tour the CatholicCulture.org Site
Shop Amazon to Raise Money for Catholic Culture

Recent Catholic Commentary

Learning from the sick, and from the death of a child 23 hours ago
The case for change in Irish abortion law: based on a framework of falsehood May 17
The Smell of the Sheep May 16
Too many missing funds: Catholic institutions need tighter financial controls May 16
What capitalists should learn from the Pope's critique May 16

Top Catholic News

Most Important Stories of the Last 30 Days
Pope strongly supports call for reform in religious life CWN - May 8