NETHERLANDS
Dutch News
Wednesday 04 January 2012
A man who claims to have been sexually abused as a child by a Catholic priest has made a formal complaint against cardinal Ad Simonis for perjury, Trouw reports on Wednesday afternoon.
The man accuses the cardinal of lying when he told a court hearing in Middelburg he did not know that children were being abused by church officials.
‘I am convinced that Simonis knew about the abuse of children but did not say anything during the hearing. He also knew about the abuse at the time it was taking place,’ the man told local news website Breda Dichtbij.
A recent church commission into the sexual abuse scandal concluded that church officials, bishops and lay people were aware of what was going on but failed to take action to protect children.
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