Swiss Catholic Church abuse report delivered to Vatican
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.
The Bishop of Chur, Joseph Bonnemain, has submitted the report covering accusations of harassment and covering up alleged abuse.
+ Why Switzerland is losing its religion
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
Swiss bishops speak to Pope about 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.
More
Relatives fear for 81-year-old Swiss detained in Tunisia
More
The global private education industry is coming for Switzerland’s expensive schools
More
Switzerland’s mood barometer reveals high satisfaction but cracks in unity
More
Swiss Abroad aim for seats in parliament
More
Silent power guzzlers: Switzerland’s booming data centres
News
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
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.