FRIBOURG (SWITZERLAND)
Swissinfo [Bern, Switzerland]
September 29, 2023
Bernard Sonney, the deputy bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, has temporarily vacated his office after two weeks in the job following allegations of abuse. An investigation is underway against him.
Sonney had decided to take this step “following a report”, journalists were told at a media conference in Fribourg on Friday. The report was taken from a letter sent to the bishop, Charles Morerod, by an alleged victim.
Morerod was not present at the media conference. He is currently recovering from an emergency operation in mid-September after reportedly having a bicycle accident. Morerod’s emergency hospitalisation came a day after the publication of a study by the University of Zurich into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland. This documented more than 1,000 cases of abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland since the middle of the 20th century.
Morerod had been accused in the Sonntagsblick newspaper of having failed to intervene after reports of abuse.
+ Sweeping study finds 1,000 cases of sexual abuse in Swiss Catholic Church
Priest suspended
The diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg further announced that it had suspended a priest in canton Neuchâtel. His identity and the nature of the incident, which was reported by a foreign bishop, were not specified.
Sonney is not the first high Catholic dignitary to resign over allegations of abuse. In mid-September, the Abbot of St-Maurice, Jean Scarcella, announced that he would leave his office.