Following in the footsteps of France the Catholic Church in Switzerland recently instructed two historians to investigate sexual abuse within the organisation, reported RTS.
The researchers running the investigation are from the University of Zurich. They now have the task of collecting testimony from victims which will form the basis of a report on sexual abuse within the Swiss Catholic Church.
The organisations requesting the investigation include the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, KOVOS and RKZ, three Catholic associations in Switzerland. The written agreement to proceed with the investigation was signed in November 2021. The project, which is a pilot, has been designed to ensure the investigations are independent
The aim of this pilot is to define the scope and framework of a larger investigation, which will focus on activity during the second half of the 20th century.
Innumerable people have endured deep suffering linked to sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, underlined a press release by the organisation.
The results of an investigation into the Catholic Church in France published earlier this year detailed the abuse of 216,000 children by clergy between 1950 and 2020, a number that climbs to 330,000 when claims against lay members of the church, such as teachers at church schools, are included. The vast majority of victims were boys, who were preyed upon by as many as 3,200 abusers. Based on these numbers around 1 in every 35 clergy was an abuser. In addition, the Roman Catholic Church in France was found to have systematically shielded clergy from prosecution.
More on this:
RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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