20 per cent of Dutch Catholics consider unsubscribing from church, study says
21-01-2022
CNE.news
The Vitus Church in the Dutch city of Hilversum. Photo ANP, Jeroen Jumelet
About one in five Catholics in the Netherlands consider withdrawing their church membership. The reason for this is the sexual abuse scandal that came to light in the church over ten years ago.
For years, the Catholic Church has been confronted with abuse scandals in various countries. At the end of 2011, a Dutch Commission presided by the former Christian Democratic politician Wim Deetman published a report showing that thousands of minors in the Netherlands had been victims of sexual abuse within Catholic institutions.
After the commission's investigation, a third of the faithful had less confidence in the Catholic Church, writes Dutch Christian daily Reformatorisch Dagblad based on a study by research company DirectResearch among a representative group of over 1,200 Catholics. The research was commissioned by TV programme Dit is de Dag (This is the Day) and the Dutch daily Nederlands Dagblad. "For one in ten Catholics, confidence in the Church has grown since the work of the Deetman Commission."
Reliable
More than half of the Dutch Catholics surveyed consider the commission's work independent, good and reliable. "A quarter of Catholic Dutch people think that the church has dealt with the disclosure of sexual abuse in a good way."
In 2018, Pope Francis, after facing numerous cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests in several countries, said that sexual abuse must be eradicated within the church. Forty-one per cent of Catholics surveyed believe the pope is "adequately" addressing abuse worldwide. Among Catholics who attend church frequently, the proportion is higher: almost 60 per cent.
