The former head of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, Cardinal Ad Simonis, will be called to a hearing concerning a sexual abuse case in the Catholic Church.A spokeswoman from a court in Middelburg,in the southern province of Zeeland, confirmed on Tuesday that the cardinal is one of the witnesses called by the victim's lawyer to attend a provisional witnesses' examination.
No details have been released about the other witnesses.
The court's spokeswoman said all specifics relating to the case will be made known in the beginning of November.
The lawyer, who has called on Cardinal Simonis as a witness, is involved in a claim case on behalf of his client.
The sexual abuse victim is seeking compensation from the diocese of Breda in the southern province of North Brabant.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Simonis sparked off controversy when he said that church leaders were not aware of sexual child abuse in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Speaking on the TV programme Pauw & Witteman on 23 March 2010, he said - in German - "wir haben es nicht gewusst" and added "I know that is a very dangerous remark and heavily loaded, but it's true."
The remark in question, meaning "we didn't know about it" and referring to the Holocaust, was repeatedly used by Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg trials after World War II.
Cardinal Simonis said many things were hidden from the church leaders because a bishop does not have direct authority over the various orders of clergy within the church.
He claimed that in his 38 years as a bishop he had been aware of no more than ten cases of abuse.
SIC: EN/EU
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