Curaçao clerical sexual abuse

This video says about itself:

Sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Curaçao

20 February 2011

She was brought up to trust the Roman Catholic priests, but became the victim of sexual abuse by two Dutch priests in Curaçao – one of the former Netherlands Antilles – as a child.

Now 60 years later, Muriel Bruyn-Van Rozenburg tells her story in public for the first time. She hopes it will encourage other Antilleans to tell theirs.

Another video which used to be on YouTube used to say about itself:

John is 57-years-old. As a small child, he was abused by several friars at a boarding school in Curaçao. For the first time, he speaks publicly about the abuse he endured for years on end.

Translated from Radio Netherlands Worldwide:

Roman Catholic school in Curaçao no safe haven

Friday, October 15, 2010 10:46

Report by Robert Chesal

PHILIPSBURG – Sexual abuse also took place in the Roman Catholic Church in Curaçao, according to research by Radio Netherlands Worldwide. However, it took place in the context of a broader problem: the cruelty traditionally thought of as a common thread running through Curaçao society.

Ralph Raveneau (61) walks to his bookcase. He takes a dictionary, looks up ‘sadism’ and reads the definition. When he is finished, he looks again. “He terrorized us. Abused us. Humiliated us. Spit at us. I think he liked to do that. ”

It’s about “Brother P “, a teacher at St. Paul’s College in Groot Kwartier, Curacao. “Brother P. was very well known. If today in Groot Kwartier you mention that name to a man in his sixties, then that man will either begin to cry or he will beat you up. Nobody wants to hear that name anymore.”

Fear of reprisals

“There were some good teachers as well,” Raveneau says in his family house in the north of North Holland. In the living room some things remind one of the maritime world. Later he became an offshore engineer. Like many Antilles people who emigrated, he did not want to be far from his beloved sea.

But fear colors his memories. Brother P. had “systems,” says Raveneau. “He put a blind map of the Netherlands on the school blackboard. You, come here. Point out Groningen, he said. If you then accidentally pointed out Hoogezand, he would beat the hell out of you. And he would grin while doing that. There were forty witnesses. ”

Also, he remembers a boy who had been beaten by Brother P. and who then had to wash his face under the fountain. “But when he did that, P. beat him up from behind. His entire eyebrow was destroyed. What should a boy like that say when he comes home? We were afraid of reprisals.”

Vatican canonizes Australia’s first saint: Nun who exposed sexual abuse by a priest: here.

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