Posted on Advocate.com March 20, 2012 09:30:00 PM ET

Dutch Catholic Authorities Alleged to Have Treated Gays With Castration
Reports have emerged that in the 1950s, Dutch Roman Catholic authorities approved the surgical castration of young men to "cure" them of homosexuality, including the late Henk Heithuis (pictured), who had accused priests of sexual abuse.
By Trudy Ring

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2012/03/20/Dutch_Catholic_Authorities_Alleged_to_Have_Treated_Gays_With_Castration/

Reports have emerged that in the 1950s, Dutch Roman Catholic authorities approved the surgical castration of at least 10 boys and young men to "cure" them of homosexuality.

The Netherlands newspaper NRC Handelsblad has identified one of them, a youth named Henk Heithus, who in 1956 told police he had suffered sexual abuse perpetrated by priests in a church-run group home. Then 20 years old, he was castrated "as a treatment for homosexuality and also as a punishment for those who accused clergy of sexual abuse," according to an English-language report in London's Telegraph. He died two years later in an automobile accident.

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Netherlands: Catholic Church 'castrated boys as gay cures and punishments'
by Stephen Gray
20 March 2012, 12:30pm

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/03/20/the-netherlands-catholic-church-castrated-boys-as-gay-cures-and-punishments/

A newspaper in the Netherlands claims to have uncovered cases in which boys in Roman Catholic care over half a century ago were castrated to stop them being gay or to punish them for uncovering abuse.

NRC Handelsblad is reporting that more than ten teenage boys and young men were surgically castrated to try to rid them of homosexuality and that Catholic carers castrated boys who blew the whistle on abuse.

Wim Deetman's inquiry into sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands was reportedly sent evidence of the castrations but the allegations were not followed up in the final report.

Wow.  I didn't know the Catholic abuse scandal could get worse than I already thought it was. 

Not only were the abusers hurting the mind and soul of the victims, but also apparently the bodies. 

The Vatican really needs to have a total house cleaning if they are ever going to regain any sort of moral position.  The Church's  credibility is in tatters.

Karen.

This is abuse of the highest order. God knows how many lives have been ruined or destroyed by these so-called miracle curers.

The roman catholic church seems like the worst sect that is responsible for ruining millions of lives allover the world. I wonder how do they still have people following them when it is obvious that the catholic church is runned by sadists and by psychopaths.

I have zero respect for the catholic cult! As a kid there were a couple boys I knew that complained about the priests messing with them, when they told an adult or a parent it was always the boy that got in trouble!! "How dare they even suggest a priest would do that"  the adults would say..grrrrr

I saw the same original article and there was a victim interviewed. Such a cruel and disgusting act.

We can make excuses for the past and that generation of knowledge changes how society interacts with those that the majority do not understand.

But there does seem to be a systemic problem in this particular religion to ignore child abuse at every level. There are credible acknowledged  reports of abuse in the USA, the UK, Eire and Australia. Even locally in Adelaide there are still cover ups going on and an unwillingness to face 'mistakes' that may have been due to individuals who can alone perpetuate great harm on many people in a short time.

"Oh Bishop I knew Father John was doing this but he is well respected" Seems to be some sort of excuse.

What my Godess lays hidden in deeply RC religious countries such as Spain and Italy? I hate to think.

It does have to be said that the RC are not alone in this. I am in no way exonerating them by that comment; we read daily of paedophilia groups who are preying on the youngest babies and publicising their acts. We have people locking children in cellars for years while they rape them and impregnate them. these appear to be 'normal' people who in some cases have wives and family. In some case their wives support them in the full knowledge of what they do.

How and Why?

We also need to take responsibility. How can society have become so depraved that preying on the innocent is acceptable, as long as it is hidden.

We can be horror struck, and we are. But we are society we need to be responsible for our society and what is moral and what is not.

The attitude seems to be that it isn't our responsibility, it is up to the authorities to police it.

Is it?

Cindy

But there does seem to be a systemic problem in this particular religion to ignore child abuse at every level.

In the US Protestant ministers are constantly being involved in such things too, they just lack an institutional structure to go after.  It does not seem to be as much of a Catholic thing as a religious thing in general.

  The Catholics do have a bit of housecleaning to do.  This is about the worst aside from the other child molesting scandal they have.  There was a time that The Vatican had deals with certain governments to do the things such as running orphanages and schools for the indigenous.  In Ireland, it was the laundries that was run by nuns and using rebellious and wayward girls in a prison type setting.  Canada had some Catholic asylums that was subsidized and schools for the Native American children to learn English, French, Catholicism, plus anything but Native American (In the US it was with the Protestants).  A lot of these Catholic-state agreements ended in the 1950's. 
  Joelene