(SWITZERLAND)
The Pillar [Washington DC]
May 26, 2025
By Luke Coppen
In September 2023, the Catholic Church in Switzerland was plunged into a crisis from which it has yet to emerge. Could a new pope help Swiss Catholics to find a way out?
The turmoil began when the Swiss bishops’ conference confirmed that the Vatican had authorized a preliminary investigation into claims against six members. Five were accused of mishandling abuse cases, while a sixth faced sexual harassment allegations.
The news broke days before the publication of an independent pilot study on abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland, commissioned by the bishops’ conference and compiled by the University of Zurich. The study, which documented 1,002 cases of clerical abuse since 1950, prompted a public outcry.
The Swiss bishops’ conference said in October 2024, that it had received a letter from the Vatican announcing the results of the preliminary investigation. The letter was from the Dicastery for Bishops, led by Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV.
A land of Reformation
The Catholic population of Switzerland is comparatively small. The most recent figures suggest there are around 2.8 million Swiss Catholics out of a population of 8.7 million.
But while there are more Catholics in, say, Madagascar than Switzerland, Swiss Catholicism has an outsized influence thanks to its deep history and proximity to Rome.
Christianity arrived in the Swiss region around the 4th century and the Abbey of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, in southwestern Switzerland, has been occupied since the 6th century.
Switzerland was, of course, a cradle of the Reformation. And the ecclesiastical revolution of the 16th century left its mark on the Swiss Catholic Church, which developed structures more typically associated with Protestantism.
In addition to the normal diocesan structure, the Catholic Church in Switzerland has democratically organized regional bodies known as cantonal churches. The regional bodies have their own synods, or parliaments, with elected members. The Swiss Catholic Church is arguably one of the most “synodal” in the world, depending on the definition of that term.
In the wake of Vatican Council II, the Swiss Church developed a reputation as a hotbed of progressive Catholicism. The Swiss theologian Hans Küng led the global progressive charge, advancing his ideas in the international theological journal Concilium.
But the Church in Switzerland is not uniformly progressive — or, indeed, uniformly anything, given the country’s tremendous cultural and linguistic variety. One of the founders of the journal Communio, established partly to counter Concilium, was the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.
The Swiss progressive Catholic legacy lives on. In his first Swiss episcopal appointment, Pope Leo confirmed the election by the local cathedral chapter of Fr. Beat Grögli as the new Bishop of St. Gallen. At a press conference on the day of his appointment, Grögli backed women deacons. While declining to label himself a supporter of women priests, he said he believed it would happen “someday.”
Grögli, until now pastor of St. Gallen Cathedral, has reportedly called for Church teaching to be “adapted” on marriage, sexual morality, and contraception “so that the profound rift between modern-day doctrine and practice should not get even wider.” The priest has also been criticized for donning a multicolored jester hat during a Mass at St. Gallen Cathedral in carnival season.
Meanwhile, members of the Swiss Catholic Women’s Federation voted May 23 in favor of dropping the word “Catholic” from the organization’s name. Co-president Katharina Jost Graf said the word would now be included in the federation’s slogan, “überraschend anders katholisch” (“surprisingly different Catholic”).
She argued that the change would “make it clear that by ‘Catholic’ we do not simply mean what around 80% of people associate with it: hierarchy, abuse of power, clericalism, unequal treatment.”
Formal reprimands
The clerical abuse crisis arguably arrived later in Switzerland than in its larger neighbors of Austria, France, and Germany.
While Swiss Catholicism grappled with abuse cases for decades, it was only in 2021 that Church leaders commissioned an independent abuse report, following the publication of a major study in France. Despite the Swiss Church’s distinctive synodal structure, it does not seem to have combated abuse any more effectively than its neighbors.
Shortly before the publication of the Swiss independent study, it emerged that the prominent priest Fr. Nicolas Betticher had written in May 2023 to the apostolic nuncio in Switzerland denouncing the handling of abuse cases by several Swiss bishops.
That year, the number of people formally leaving the Catholic Church in Switzerland almost doubled, setting a new record of 67,497 formal “church exits.” Researchers said the abuse crisis was a principal factor in the departures.
Following the canonical preliminary investigation into the allegations against Swiss bishops’ conference members, conducted by Chur’s Bishop Joseph Bonnemain, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops offered a mixed verdict.
Cardinal Prevost thanked the bishops for commissioning the independent study and taking other steps to tackle abuse. The dicastery found no evidence of offenses requiring canonical criminal proceedings, but issued reprimands to bishops for failing to follow certain provisions of canon law.
The Swiss bishops’ conference said that Prevost encouraged the Swiss bishops “to continue their path of active and rigorous vigilance in the application of canon law in dealing with sexual abuse,” recognizing that “the Catholic Church’s guidelines are not merely legal instruments, but reflect a sense of justice and responsibility toward those affected, to whom the Church owes listening, attention, and reparation.”
Prevost also wrote personally to the bishops subject to investigation. His September 2024 letter to Bishop Charles Morerod of Lausanne, Geneva, and Fribourg was published on the diocesan website. It formally reprimanded Morerod for not always following the required procedures for canonical preliminary investigations.
In December 2024, Morerod was elected president of the Swiss bishops’ conference.
What’s next?
Whether the Swiss Catholic Church is nearing the end of the crisis, or still deep within it, may become clearer when the disaffiliation figures for 2024 are published, likely this fall.
If there is a new record for departures, the pressure on Swiss Church leaders will intensify. But if the figure is significantly below the current record of 67,000, they may gain some breathing space.
In his letter to the Swiss bishops’ conference, Cardinal Prevost stressed that the “path of active and rigorous vigilance in the application of canon law” was essential. Indeed, it is the only way to restore the badly damaged trust in the Swiss hierarchy.
As pope, Leo XIV can arguably best help the Swiss bishops by continuing to insist that they follow the provisions of canon law, and ensuring there are consequences for failure.
He can also carefully scrutinize candidates for Swiss episcopal office. Of the country’s six dioceses, one is currently vacant: the Diocese of Lugano. A further two may fall vacant before long: Chur, where Bishop Bonnemain is approaching 77, and Sion, where Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey will turn 75 in August.
Pope Leo’s confirmation of Fr. Grögli as Bishop of St. Gallen suggests the new pope is content for episcopal appointments from the progressive parts of Swiss Catholicism to continue. Perhaps he is wary of appointing bishops who clash with the local ecclesiastical culture, given the example of the traditionalist Wolfgang Haas, whose unhappy tenure in Chur ended with his transfer to neighboring Liechtenstein.
But even if Leo XIV is not especially concerned where candidates sit on the ecclesial spectrum, there is one quality he will need to insist on. The Swiss Church will only be able to emerge from its crisis if its future bishops are significantly more effective at addressing abuse than their predecessors.