Vatican reprimands Swiss bishops for their handling of abuse allegations

Vatican reprimands bishops for their handling of abuse allegations Keystone-SDA

The Vatican has reprimanded several Swiss bishops in connection with allegations of sexual abuse and their handling of it, including cover-ups. The Swiss Bishops' Conference announced on Friday that no canonical criminal proceedings will take place.

“Errors, shortcomings and omissions in the area of canonical procedural norms have been identified, which the bishops deeply regret,” said the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, summarising the response of the dicastery, a kind of arbitration body in the Vatican. There had been no misconduct that would require the opening of criminal proceedings within the Church today.

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In June 2023, the Dicastery for Bishops commissioned the Bishop of Chur, Joseph Maria Bonnemain, to conduct a preliminary canonical investigation to look into various allegations against several Swiss bishops. According to the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, the results were forwarded to the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome at the beginning of this year, to which the Vatican has now responded.

Accusation of sexual abuse

Bonnemain’s mission from the Vatican was to investigate the conduct of four members of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference for possible failure to report assaults. A fifth member of the Bishops’ Conference was to be investigated for alleged sexual harassment.

Nicolas Betticher, former vicar general of the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, had reported several Swiss bishops within the church for covering up. The abbot of Saint-Maurice in Valais, Jean Scarcella, accused of sexual abuse and cover-up, subsequently resigned from office in September 2023 in order to, as he said, “guarantee the independence of the investigation”.

Also in September last year, the University of Zurich published a study on the extent of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church since the mid-20th century. This study showed that priests and members of religious orders in Switzerland had committed over 1,000 cases of sexual abuse since 1950, although the number of unreported cases is likely to be high.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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