Swiss bishops have said they wish to establish an ecclesiastical criminal and disciplinary court for breaches of canon law.
In a statement on 23 September, the bishops’ conference said that it would hold talks with the Vatican in the coming weeks on the creation of a new court which could issue sanctions for crimes under canon law.
They said that Swiss criminal law would have precedence over such a court, and it would remain compulsory to involve the criminal prosecution authorities in all cases of Church-linked abuse.
This followed the publication of an abuse report earlier in September recording 1,002 cases, which has driven demands for Church action.
The Swiss nuncio, Archbishop Martin Krebs, at first refused to open the archives of the nunciature for research on sexual abuse in the Church, citing the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations under which the documents of a diplomatic mission are “at all times inviolable”.
Facing mounting criticism for this position, he said he would look into the possibility of opening the archives for this research.
“We are here faced with a dilemma between diplomatic protection of the archives and clearing up abuse crimes in the Church. I assure you – together with a group of experts on the subject – I have begun to look for viable solutions as to how to deal with this dilemma”, he told the Sonntagszeitung on 24 September.
Fr Hans Zollner, one of the leading experts in Church safeguarding, said the abuse report had exposed the same systemic faults in the Switzerland as existed in the worldwide Church.
Writing in Forum, a Church magazine in the Zürich canton, he said it was imperative “to listen to abuse victims, listen to their stories and not run away from them”.
He said that too often in the past, the Church had shut the door in their faces, now it must talk to them and find out what the Church and society could do to prevent abuse.
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