Dutch Church abused 1000\'s of children

Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in Dutch Catholic institutions over the past 65 years by priests and other Roman Catholic religious figures, a new report says. The report, which is based on a survey of more than 34,000 people, said it could identify 800 Catholic clergy and other church employees guilty of sexually abusing children in the 40 years from 1945 and that more than 100 perpetrators were still alive. According to the probe, the abuse ranged from "unwanted sexual advances" to rape, while the number of victims who suffered abuse in church institutions likely lies somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000. Dutch bishops apologized to the victims and said they were filled with "shame and sorrow" over the Commission's findings, which was led by a former education minister Wim Deetman. "The Dutch Catholic Church knew what was happening and tried to resolve the problem," but the appropriate actions were never taken, Deetman told a press conference in The Hague. Recently the Roman Catholic Church has been rocked by numerous revelations of child sexual abuse at the hands of priests around the world. Investigations have shown that clerics have sexually abused children in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium in the past decades and that the church has often covered up the abuse, protecting pedophile priests. In 2004, a criminal inquiry established there were 4,400 paedophile priests in the United States between 1950 and 2002, putting the number of their child victims at 11,000. Ireland, one of the most staunchly Catholic countries in Europe, has seen a series of crises, leading Pope Benedict XVI to publicly rebuke its bishops for a "breakdown of trust". A total of 14,500 Irish children are reported to have been victims of abuse by clergy.