AP
May 20, 2010
Staff Writer
After all the allegations and multimillion
dollar lawsuits that the Roman Catholic church has suffered world-wide on the
subject of sexual abuse of children, one would think that the Catholic church
would have spared no expense to purge its orders of any of this. Yet here we find a Roman Catholic order, an
entire Roman Catholic order that is sympathetic to pedophilia from the order’s
leader down. The allegations against
this order have been publicly known for at least the last six months – so how
is it that the Roman Catholic Church has not shut down this order, or at very
least suspended every priest involved in this?
Herman Spronck, head of the Dutch arm of the Salesian
order, said in a statement Friday the priest served on the board of the "Martijn" organization, which is widely reviled but not
illegal.
"Of course we reject this and distance ourselves from this personal
initiative" on the part of the priest, Spronck's
statement said.
"Membership in such organizations does not fit with the ethos of the Salesian order."
However, RTL Nieuws,
which broke the story, published interviews both with Spronck
and the priest, identified as 73-year-old "Father Van B.," in which
they defend some pedophile relationships.
"Society thinks these relationships are harmful. I disagree," RTL
quoted Van B. as saying. He served on Martijn's board
from 2008 until 2010, when the organization's founder was arrested for alleged
possession of child pornography. That case is ongoing.
RTL quoted Spronck
as saying that "formally I always say that everyone must obey the law. But
these relationships do not necessarily have to be damaging."
Spronck and his organization could not be reached
late Friday for comment.
Thousands of past cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests are under
investigation by an independent — but Church-funded — commission in the
The Dutch church, which has more than 4 million members,
first set up a body to deal with abuse allegations in 1995. But the
independent commission was formed last year after shocking abuse cases were
uncovered here at the same time similar stories were snowballing in neighboring
Several of
the first and most prominent abuse cases that have come to light in the