Congregation for Catholic Education and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He held these memberships until his 80th birthday on 26 November 2011. Simonis was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. Simonis sent his letter of resignation as Archbishop of Utrecht to Pope Benedict on 13 November 2006, and the Pope accepted it on 14 April 2007, two months before Simonis celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest on 15 June. Simonis continued to govern the archdiocese as Apostolic Administrator until his successor, Wim Eijk, who was appointed on 11 December of the same year, took possession of the see on 28 January 2008. Simonis died on 2 September 2020 at a care centre in Voorhout. Controversy In 2011, Simonis testified on 25 January that he had no role in the appointment or dismissal of a Catholic priest accused of drugging and raping a young man. The brief appearance by Simonis at Middelburg District Court marked the first time such a senior cleric had appeared in a Dutch courtroom to answer questions about abuse in the church. The victim, Dave ten Hoor, says he was drugged and raped twice by the priest, identified only as Father Jan N., in 1989 and 1990 in the southern town of Terneuzen. "I do not know him at all," Simonis said of Father Jan, adding that he had nothing to do with his appointment as a priest in Terneuzen. Simonis was drawn into the case because before moving to Terneuzen, Father Jan also allegedly abused children at a youth centre run by the Salesian order in Rijswijk, a town just outside The Hague. At the time, Simonis was Bishop of Rotterdam and Rijswijk fell within his diocese. However Simonis said he had visited the centre just once for a party and did not recall meeting the priest, though he did not rule out that he may have been introduced to him. According to Radio Netherlands World: Simonis commented on the abuse in an interview on Pauw & Witteman. Speaking in German, he said: "Wir haben es nicht gewusst (We did not know)". He says he dealt with all the cases of abuse that were brought to his attention "extremely carefully". References External links Adrianus Johannes Cardinal Simonis at Catholic-Hierarchy https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-09/pope-francis-sends-condolences-on-the-death-of-cardinal-simonis.html 1931 births 2020 deaths Dutch cardinals Archbishops of Utrecht People from Lisse