SWITZERLAND
Today
AFP
Catholic bishops in Switzerland have created a fund to help people sexually abused by clergy members in cases where the statute of limitations has passed, they said Monday.
The Swiss Bishops Conference (SBK) said it had created a reparations fund worth 500,000 Swiss francs ($495,000, 462,000 euros) to be used to pay sex abuse victims who no longer have the right to seek redress in court.
“The responsible clergy believe that sex abuse victims in cases where the public statute of limitations has passed and where the Church has long turned a blind eye and provided no reparations, are in a particularly difficult situation,” SBK said in a statement.
SBK said the fund was the latest step in a process it began six years ago when it acknowledged the Church held responsibility, after numerous cases of sexual molestation by priests decades earlier came to light.
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