Father Herman Spronck (left) with North West European Salesian Provincials
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The Church in Netherlands will investigate claims that pupils at a monastery school in the country's east were sexually abused by priests in the 1960s.
"The Order of Salesians of Don Bosco has decided to open an investigation," said Herman Spronck, the head priest of the order, which runs the Don Rua monastery in the town of 's-Heerenberg, according to an AFP report on Expatica.com.
The inquiry was launched after a Dutch newspaper last Friday reported the testimony of a former pupil who claims to have been sexually abused while at Don Rua.
"Our first concern is for the victims," said Spronck. "They have the right to acknowledgement of the harm that was done to them."
The monastery hosted 80 to 100 children aged between 12 and 18 every year between 1958 and 1971.
The Dutch Bishops' Conference will determine at their meeting on March 9whether to expand the probe to other orders and monestaries, said Spronck.
FULL STORY
Dutch probe claims of 1960s Catholic child sex abuse