“I had already received a letter that I had to go [to the hearing] and the letterhead said: ‘a complaint does not have to be based on the truth’. That’s when I exploded and threw the entire kitchen to pieces. When I went to the hearing and there was someone from the diocese, I said: ‘If there is one – and there were about thirteen or fourteen of them who all asked questions – I said: ‘If there is one who says that this [the abuse] did not happen, I will smash everything here to pieces, I don’t care who’. I was so furious.“
description
Actor: Mieke
Item type: Quote from interview
Date: […]
DoJ Researcher: Naomi Ormskerk
DoJ Research project: [Sexual] abuse – The church (PhD)
Language: English
Context
In 2010, the disclosure of several cases of sexual abuse in institutions operated by the Dutch Catholic Church, ignited a national political debate and led to public outrage. With the disclosure of the abuse, victim- survivors demanded justice from Church authorities and the state. Nevertheless, the available justice measures are invariably solely aimed at primary victims. Whilst relatives are often concurrently named with survivors in redress schemes, it is not evident if and how multi-level narratives are established in justice measures. How do primary and secondary victims – such as family members, partners, and children of victim-survivors – experience justice measures allotted by the Church and the state? And what are ‘lessons learned’ when comparing two seemingly different cases of clergy abuse, namely (sexual) abuse in Church institutions and forced labour of former pupils of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd?
