The mass took place one day after pope Benedict XVI published a letter to the Irish faithful expressing his compassion and regret to Irish abuse victims and their families. In the Netherlands, bishops responded to the publication with appreciation and agreement. They said the text also fully applies to Dutch victims, even if they are not specifically mentioned. In Saturday’s letter, the pope did not mention any disciplinary action that the Church would take against clerics guilty of abuse. Instead, he wrote they should answer “before Almighty God” for their “sinful and criminal acts”.

For victims, not enough

Like the Irish Catholics, Dutch victims were disappointed by the letter. Peter Dijcks (54) from Rijswijk, was abused as a 6-year-old boy attending the Sint Henricus institute for the blind in the Dutch town of Grave. “The church fails to investigate to what extent this abuse was caused by the system itself,” Dijcks said. He feels the pope should have called for the “removal” of clerics who have abused children “from positions where they may yet claim further victims”.

Janne Geraets (57) said he felt these clerics should leave the Church altogether. “But I fear this would leave the pope without a Church,” he said. Geraets, who was abused at age 11 by Salesian priests in Don Rua boarding school in ’s-Heerenberg, said that the letter showed that the Church was trying to cover its tracks. But it will have to “face the music”, Geraets said. “The Church has helped abusers for years. This has to stop.”

The internal ecclesiasticall inquiry that the pope announced failed to impress Geraets. “An inquiry like that should be independent,” he said. Henri Looymans (53) from Middelburg said the Dutch government could play an important role in this respect. “The fundamental right to safety of a lot of children has been violated for decades, and perhaps will be again. The government should take the initiative here,” said Looymans, who was himself abused by two priests of the Brothers of Love order in Eikenburg boarding school in Eindhoven.

‘Your trust has been violated’

The mass in the St. Catherine’s Cathedral did not pass over the victim’s plight lightly. Coadjutor bishop Herman Woorts quoted a few trenchant phrases from the pope’s letter. “Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated,” he read. “Those of you who were abused in residential institutions must have felt that there was no escape from your sufferings.” The coadjutor added the Church had to face up to its own mistakes. ”Those should be acknowledged, not denied.” He mentioned the suffering “that many people have carried within them in silence for years.”

The priest reminded his congregation that no man is free from sin, calling on the story from the Gospel of John of the adulterous woman about to be stoned. When the scribes asked Jesus what he thought of the matter, he responded “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” after which the scribes let the woman be. Finally, Jesus told the adulterous woman: "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more."

The coadjutor said this showed Jesus did not want to justify the woman’s sins, but was mainly trying to tell her to look within first.

Closing the book

The mass was proof of a strong desire to close the book on the painful matter for good. “Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past,” was one of the first verses to be read from the book of Isaiah. De coadjutor mentioned “the four adults in our midst” who would soon be baptised. There were more, he had heard out in the parishes, sixteen altogether who chose to undergo the Catholic ritual. “Small signs of a new spring. They may not make the news, but they are important,” he said.

After the mass, an old man grabbed his bike, which he had parked in an alley next to the church. He said he had mixed feelings over the abuse scandal. Why did it come to light only now, he asked. And what was the point? “The people should have been brought to justice years ago. It is as simple as that. Now they won’t be. The statute of limitations has long run out. Now the Church is being blamed for acts committed by people in the Church’s service,” he said.

Other churchgoers – no one wanted to be quoted by name – refused to answer questions. A middle aged woman said she did not speak to journalists. “I feel that journalists are not doing a lot right at the moment when it comes to compassion,” she explained. A man with glasses said he felt the mass was a good one, and did well to convey the spirit of the pope’s letter. “The Church has shown its heart is open, that it is prepared to look within.” He refused to say anything further, on account of the media being “not particularly objective”.