Swiss abbey showed “deficient” management of sexual abuse

Abbaye de St-Maurice: "deficient" management of sexual abuse Keystone-SDA

The Abbey of Saint-Maurice in Switzerland has failed to deal with the sexual abuse it has witnessed over the last few decades.

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Tasked with shedding light on this past, an independent working group has found major dysfunctions.

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The group, led by Neuchâtel Attorney General Pierre Aubert, published its report on Friday. Based on archives and eyewitness accounts, it listed “a significant number” of acts of sexual violence of all kinds committed between 1950 and 2022.

The Abbey has long adopted a “defensive posture” to preserve its reputation. Its leaders sometimes tried to “cover up” the facts, for example by moving the incriminated canons, and sometimes tried to “trivialise” or “minimise” these abuses.

The working group also highlights the “laxity” in terms of supervision and “insufficient guidance and support” for members of the community. This climate may have encouraged “unacceptable behaviour” and the recidivism of certain canons, even though they had been implicated on several occasions.

Multiple acts of violence

At the end of its investigation, the working group found 67 cases of sexual violence and at least 68 victims, including 57 minors. Committed between 1950 and 2022, these abuses were attributed to 30 men, canons or other people linked to the Abbey.

However, this count does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the reality of the violence. Because of the “silence of the sources”, with archives missing or people preferring to remain silent, it is “highly probable that many situations” escaped the attention of the working group, the investigator said.

He also adds that it is not always possible to state that the events occurred exactly as described.

The abuses reported are varied. The majority consist of sexual innuendo, touching, exhibitionism or seduction in a relationship of authority. For the most serious cases, the working group mentions sexual assaults, rapes and forced abortions.

This violence mainly occurred in boarding schools and during pastoral activities or holiday camps.

Statute of limitations

On the criminal front, the working group has not identified any cases that have not already been tried or that are not time-barred. One case is still pending, but it does not concern a canon but a lay person linked to the Abbey.

To the best of the working group’s knowledge, five convictions against three canons and a novice have been handed down since the 1970s. Most of the cases have been dismissed for insufficient evidence or because the statute of limitations has expired.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

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