Swiss Catholic Church abuse report delivered to Vatican
The Vatican has not yet released details of the report.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The Vatican has received a report on an investigation into allegations that members of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference tried to cover up abuse in the Catholic Church.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/RTS
The Bishop of Chur, Joseph Bonnemain, has submitted the report covering accusations of harassment and covering up alleged abuse.
The documentation collected as part of the preliminary canonical investigation, mandated in June 2023 by the Vatican, totals 1,800 pages, the bishopric of Chur said in a press release on Friday. A 24-page final report contains a series of conclusions and recommendations for Vatican officials.
The bishopric of Chur has not provided information on the concrete results of the preliminary canonical investigation. Questioned by the Keystone-ATS agency, Nicole Büchel, communications manager, explained that she did not receive authorisation from Rome to reveal the content of the report.
With the submission of the report, Bonnemain’s mission is complete, the diocese said. “The files will now be studied at the Vatican, which could take some time.” Those responsible for the Roman Curia will then draw their conclusions, make decisions and communicate them in an appropriate form.
Bishop Bonnemain was commissioned by Rome to investigate the behaviour of four members of the Bishops’ Conference due to possible omissions of abuse reports. For a fifth member of the episcopal conference, it was a question of shedding light on alleged acts of sexual harassment.
According to the press release, Nicolas Betticher, former vicar general of the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Friborg denounced the wrongful behaviour of certain Swiss bishops.
For his preliminary investigation, Bonnemain was supported in his work by Pierre Cornu, cantonal judge of Neuchâtel, and by Brigitte Tag, professor of criminal law and criminal procedure at the University of Zurich.
More
More
Swiss bishops speak to Pope about sexual abuse scandal
This content was published on
Pope Francis receives President of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference after Swiss sexual abuse scandal.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Foreign affairs
European nations snub Swiss-made weapons over Ukraine restrictions
Switzerland will deliver rubble removal equipment to Ukraine
This content was published on
Thirty rubble removal machines and thirty fire-fighting pumps: this is the equipment that Switzerland will be delivering to the Ukraine in the next few days. The total value of these goods is 5.6 million Swiss francs.
A third of Swiss residents plan to change health insurers
This content was published on
After the announced sharp increase in premiums for 2025, about one in three people would be considering changing health insurance companies.
Swiss-led study unravels tree growth and longevity
This content was published on
Trees reach old age using different strategies. This is shown by a Swiss-led research team with over 100 scientists from all over the world in a new study, for which they analyzed trees that live to be over three thousand years old.
This content was published on
The man who injured three children on Tuesday has been detained in pre-trial custody after a request by the public prosecutor’s office.
Swiss Evangelical Church to tackle sexual abuse suspicions
This content was published on
The Evangelical Reformed Church of Switzerland wants to follow its Catholic counterpart by dealing with cases of sexual violence.
This content was published on
Almost 34,600 people left the Catholic Church in Switzerland last year. That’s 300 more departures than the previous record figure of 2021.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.