Dutch Catholic Church Is Accused Of Castrating Boys
March 22, 2012 4:54 PM   Subscribe

The Dutch Catholic Church is accused of carrying out forcible castrations of young boys in the 1950's to cure them of homosexuality.
posted by reenum (21 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is another one of those "this shit is fucking terrible" posts that needs to be phrased in some other way to make a good MeFi post. Also, if people could behave in these thgreads in the first place, we'd sure appreciate it. -- jessamyn



 
Just when you think the Catholic Church child sex abuse issue couldn't get uglier...
posted by darkstar at 4:58 PM on March 22, 2012


so lemme get this right: first the priests would rape the kids, then they'd accuse their victims of homosexuality, then if their victims dare speak up they were castrated..... ah, but the priests "speak for God", so it's all okay!
posted by easily confused at 5:03 PM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


Why the hell is this only coming out now? I mean, I understand the cultural taboos and humiliation in admitting you have been castrated, but the victims must be over 70 years old by now. Why did they wait so long?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:14 PM on March 22, 2012


Why the hell is this only coming out now? I mean, I understand the cultural taboos and humiliation in admitting you have been castrated, but the victims must be over 70 years old by now. Why did they wait so long?

Because they've been raised since an extremely young age to believe that they deserved what happened, for their sins, and to do anything but suffer in silence would be blasphemy?
posted by kafziel at 5:15 PM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


"... those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." (C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock)
posted by wobh at 5:16 PM on March 22, 2012 [2 favorites]


Castrating young boys is also a Catholic choir tradition.
posted by Brian B. at 5:19 PM on March 22, 2012


Wait, this isn't just castrating boys for "homosexuality". Read the first story again, the boys were potentially castrated for reporting sexual abuse. That's a further level of cruelty.
posted by Jehan at 5:22 PM on March 22, 2012 [2 favorites]


Why the hell is this only coming out now? I mean, I understand the cultural taboos and humiliation in admitting you have been castrated, but the victims must be over 70 years old by now. Why did they wait so long?

Victims of rape and abuse often face aggressive disbelief when they are accusing groups not perceived to be likely abusers.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:22 PM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


From the first link:
The NRC Handelsblad newspaper identified Henk Heithuis who was castrated in 1956, while a minor, after reporting priests to the police for abusing him in a Catholic boarding home.
The Church castrated him as punishment. For speaking to the authorities about the priests who raped him. No wonder he didn't try speaking up again for 60 years.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:23 PM on March 22, 2012 [10 favorites]


Another ugly part of this story: there a commission of inquiry into sex abuse in the Dutch Catholic church in 2010, under the auspices of the Conference of Bishops and the Dutch Religious Conference, and chaired by Wim Deetman, a former Minister of Education, which made no mention of these castrations. Deetman is from the Christian Democratic Appeal, the successor party to the Catholic People's Party, which was directly implicated in the original cover-up.

Deetman has since acknowledged that his commission heard evidence of the castrations, but argued that the reason this was not included in its report is because there was insufficient evidence.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 5:23 PM on March 22, 2012


Until this species evolves beyond the need for religion, we're going to see heinous shit like this. Irrationality, fear and ignorance are a toxic brew.
posted by dbiedny at 5:26 PM on March 22, 2012 [5 favorites]


Why did they wait so long?
Matthew 19:12: 'For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."
So effectively the good book says if you're castrated you should just accept it.
posted by birdherder at 5:29 PM on March 22, 2012


Deetman has since acknowledged that his commission heard evidence of the castrations, but argued that the reason this was not included in its report is because there was insufficient evidence.

I don't get how there could be insufficient evidence. Surely, the fact of castration is easy to establish. After that, there may dispute about how or why it happened but it's hard to come up with a reasonable justification for castrating young boys.
posted by rdr at 5:29 PM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


Even today, anyone who gives money to the Catholic Church is financing a system which abuses children and protects abusers.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:31 PM on March 22, 2012 [2 favorites]


Surely, the fact of castration is easy to establish.

Apparently the commission was approached by a friend of one of the boys who had been castrated with an allegation that all of this had taken place, but never managed to track down any of the victims themselves. Not that it's really an excuse; if NRC Handelsblad managed to track down the facts, clearly the Deetman inquiry could have too if they wanted to badly enough.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 5:36 PM on March 22, 2012


Seems to me it would be a lot more effective if they castrated the priests.
posted by briank at 5:36 PM on March 22, 2012 [3 favorites]


Why the hell is this only coming out now?

Honestly, the first thing that occurred to me was what a perfect smackdown this is of (Catholic) Rick Santorum's invocation of (bogus) Dutch Socialized Euthanasia.
posted by Rat Spatula at 5:43 PM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


castrated the priests

Don't be silly, they take a vow of celibacy.
posted by Rat Spatula at 5:44 PM on March 22, 2012


No wonder he didn't try speaking up again for 60 years.

It also probably didn't help that he died in a car crash in 1958.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 5:45 PM on March 22, 2012 [2 favorites]


There is nothing in all these horrific tales of organizational perversion that has surprised me.

I was a Non-Cath student at a relatively liberal Catholic High School in California from 1969 to 1973. (My parents wanted me out of the "dangerous Public Schools" and this was the least costly alternative.) The Catholic student friends I had (including one who came out as gay years later) told tales that I didn't want to believe, but based on them, I still kept a safe distance from most of the clergy/faculty after class. Threats of castration made at victims to keep them quiet was one of the more seemingly absurd elements, since if keeping it quiet was so important, why was this heathen (and elements of the school did consider me such) let in on it? And this wasn't somewhere in Europe, this was California! (So I expect that these will not be the only cases of castration to become public.)

It makes me wonder how any Catholic kid going through 12 years of Catholic School in the last half century could NOT know. Including Rick Santorum.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:52 PM on March 22, 2012


Not the Dutch!
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:56 PM on March 22, 2012


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