Holland calls to investigate the alleged “Catholic spaying”

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch Parliament called Tuesday for an investigation into information that Catholic clerics ordered spaying of young men in the 1950s in an attempt to cure his homosexuality.

Dutch lawmakers raised questions in Parliament about an information appearing week in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad claimed that children of a Catholic boarding school had been emasculated.

“this horrible information lead to call for a parliamentary inquiry and perhaps even a judicial”, said the Deputy Khdija Arib in a debate.

The Dutch Catholic Church was willing to cooperate with an investigation to find out whether the press reports were certain, said a spokesman of the entity.

NRC information generated doubts about the recent findings of an independent Commission to investigate sexual offences within the Church.

La Commission Deetman, established by two Catholic organizations – the Bishops Conference and the Conference religious Dutch – found the year that tens of thousands of children had suffered abuse by the Catholic clergy in the Netherlands since 1945.

NRC said the Commission knew of the accusations about spaying, but omitted the subject in its report because there was not sufficient evidence.

The newspaper reported that a young man named Henk Hethuis was castrated by order of Catholic in 1956 priests, once told the police that he was suffering from sexual abuse by priests.

Hethuis and possibly even another 10 were emasculated, with the argument that “cure” his homosexuality, said the newspaper.

The Commission’s investigation said on 16 December that tens of thousands of children had suffered abuse sexual in orphanages, boarding schools and Catholic seminars from 1945 to 1981, with offences from mild to severe, as violation.

The Commission condemned what he called the cover-up of the Church and a culture of silence.

On Wednesday, the liberal legislator Van der Steur propose to Parliament an audience with who headed the Commission, Wim Deetman, and others to discuss the accusations about castration, said party spokeswoman Laura Huisman.