I agree with Martin Spillane (The Sunday Times, January 22) that it is not unreasonable for a court to rule that the Catholic Church – or any other similar institution for that matter – can be held liable for the wrongdoings of its representatives.

What I find sad is the fact that it needs a court ruling to confirm what, in my opinion, is self-evident.

Therefore, I was very pleased to read about theleadership of the Church in the Netherlands, which has ap­proached the problem of sexual child abuse in the past by a few of its priests in a different way, giving us all – Catholics and others – an example and a lesson in integrity: no hiding behind legal formalities; no beating about the bush in public.

Instead, it straightforwardly accepted responsibility and came up with a schedule of compensation for the victims, thus trying to give them back some of their dignity taken away from them brutally and shamelessly during their childhood.

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