Former parliamentary chairman and CDA member Wim Deetman is to chair an independent investigation into reports of sexual abuse at a number of Catholic boarding schools.

The far-ranging investigation was ordered by Catholic bishops on Tuesday following mounting reports of abuse by priests at schools and seminaries in the 1960s and 1970s.
Since the end of February when newspapers reported claims of abuse at a boarding school in ‘s-Heerenberg in the 1960s and 1970s, over 350 people have come forward, the Volkskrant said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, one former priest at the boarding school told tv show Nova in a telephone interview on Tuesday he had abused a boy. ‘I must offer my deepest apologies,’ the man said.
He did not rule out abusing other boys at the school. ‘I also want to offer the others, if there are more, my apologies for my actions 40, 41 years ago,’ he said.