THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A media report linking half of the cardinals and bishops who served in the Netherlands between 1945 and 2010 to abuse cases has drawn the country's Catholic Church into the church's global sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Respected Dutch daily NRC links 20 of 39 bishops and cardinals to abuse, saying four bishops committed abuse and another 16 senior clergymen transferred priests who had been accused of abuse to new locations.

The report published in the paper's weekend edition was based on a 2011 Dutch Catholic Church report about abuse, victims' testimony to a commission of inquiry and the newspaper's own research.

In a written reaction, the Dutch Catholic Church said that in confirmed cases of abuse, "bishops did not act with sufficient care" when transferring priests.