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  Head of Salesians Regrets Handling of Abuse

Radio Netherlands
April 11, 2010

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/head-salesians-regrets-handling-abuse

The head of the order of Don Bosco Salesians, Father Herman Spronck, says that in retrospect, it was "stupid" not to be completely honest about child sex abuse by Catholic priests when complaints about the order were first aired.



In a radio interview broadcast earlier this afternoon, Fr Spronck admitted that he had placed the concerns and reputation of the order above those of the victims.

The Salesians of Don Bosco and the boarding school run by the order at 's-Heerenberg is at the centre of the Roman Catholic child abuse scandal in the Netherlands.

Numerous instances of clerical child abuse during the 1950s, '60s and '70s came to light through a joint investigation by Radio Netherlands World and NRC Handelsblad.

Fr Spronck said that he wanted to protect the order's good name and he was afraid of being accused of doing too little to prevent child abuse or to stop it once it had been reported. Earlier, the Catholic priest denied knowing anything about clerical child abuse within Roman Catholic institutions in the Netherlands.



 
 

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