NETHERLANDS
NPR
by Eyder Peralta
Dutch lawmakers are calling for a parliamentary hearing, today, after new allegations of abuse by the Catholic Church surfaced over the weekend. This time, an investigation by the newspaper NRC Handelsblad found that Catholic-run institutions had surgically castrated young boys.
The paper said it had uncovered at least 11 cases in the 1950s. According to The Guardian, the paper focused on one boy who complained about being sexually abused. Police took the boy to a Catholic psychiatric ward, where he was declared a homosexual and castrated.
As awful that sounds, perhaps the bigger story here is that back in 2010, the the Conference of Bishops and the Dutch Religious Conference formed a commission to investigate abuse in the church. In December, it issued a 1,100-page report, which detailed extensive abuse, but it did not mention castrations.
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