Top Swiss bishop wants digital register of clergy

Charles Morerod has been the Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg since 2011. Keystone-SDA

The President of the Swiss Conference of Bishops, Charles Morerod, wants to introduce a national digital register of clergy in the interest of transparency.

Such a system would allow “every parish to check via smartphone whether there are any allegations or restrictions” concerning a particular clergy member, Morerod said in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, published on Thursday.

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Such a system is currently being introduced in his diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, Morerod said.

France is the role model in the area; there, a digital system already exists, the bishop added. As for how it would work, priests would receive an ID card with a QR code; when hiring a priest, parishes could then check whether the person has a criminal history.

According to Morerod, not everyone at the Conference of Bishops is convinced. This is because the French system is less well known in German-speaking Switzerland, he said. “But the process has been initiated.”

‘Learning process’

Dealing with cases of abuse in the Roman Catholic Church has been an ongoing issue, especially since the publication of a study by the University of Zurich in 2023. The study showed that priests and members of religious orders in Switzerland had committed over 1,000 cases of sexual abuse since 1950. The number of unreported cases is likely to be high. The church announced measures against abuse and its cover-up at the presentation of the report.

“I myself have gone through a learning process on this issue,” said Morerod, when asked by the NZZ about protection of perpetrators and victims. His process began when he started talking to those affected by abuse and listening to them, said Morerod. However, he added, “many in the church have not had this experience to this day – so they are also missing out on the learning process.”

Translated from French by DeepL/dos

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