Philippe Bär

Ronald Philippe Bär was a Dutch Roman Catholic prelate who was bishop of the Diocese of Rotterdam from 19 October 1983 to 13 March 1993, as well as bishop of the Dutch military ordinariate. He resigned unexpectedly amid rumours of homosexual contacts.

Background

Bär was born in Manado, North Sulawesi, then part of the Dutch East Indies, on 29 July 1928. During the Second World War, he was separated from his parents and detained in a Japanese internment camp.His parents were part of the protestant Dutch Reformed Church. After World War II, Bär moved to the Netherlands and studied protestant theology at Utrecht University. He was briefly a member of the Old Catholic Church. At the seminary, he was in the same class as Antonius Jan Glazemaker, the later Archbishop of Utrecht.
In 1954, Bär joined the Benedictine ministry Chevetogne Abbey as a monk, choosing the religious name Philippe. He died in Teteringen on 8 March 2025, at the age of 96.

Roman Catholic sex abuse case

In 2011, Bär's name was mentioned in connection with a sex abuse case involving a Roman Catholic priest, who reportedly abused dozens of children in the period from 1987 to 2008:
"The cardinal was told by the then bishop of Rotterdam, Philippe Bär, that the priest had sexually abused underage boys in his parish in Zoetermeer. Bishop Bär wanted the priest out of his diocese. Archbishop Simonis then arranged for the man to be moved to a parish in Amersfoort."