Catholic Church In Switzerland: 146 Abuse Victims, 125 Priests In Report

The Swiss Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in Switzerland has admitted that 146 victims of sexual abuse stepped forward and reported a total of 125 priests and clergy as their abusers, in the first-ever report of its kind, assembled last year. The abuse allegations go back as far as 60 years, and involve male and female victims who are the time were adults, teenagers, and even children under 12.

READ: Pope Accused Of Sex Abuse “Crimes Against Humanity” Charges At The Hague

Jessica Dacey, writing at SwissInfo, reports:

The statistics broke down in more detail who the victims and perpetrators were and when the incidents had taken place since 1950. Abuse ranged from sexual harassment to rape. Most of the victims were teenage boys (25 per cent) and adult men (23 per cent). Another 20 per cent were children aged under 12.

Half of the incidents were carried out by parish priests and 26 per cent by ordained men.

Most of the abuse happened between 1950 and 1980. Ten per cent of cases took place during the past decade. The biggest dioceses of Basel and Chur were home to most of the abuse (70 per cent).

Confirmation of the abuse first came to light more than 16 months ago when the church announced cases reported from January-May 2010. Thursday’s statistics present a complete picture of reported abuse in that year.

“It should not be forgotten that behind these figures, are people who are suffering,” Werlen added. His abbey – an important place of pilgrimage in central Switzerland – became a focal point of abuse cases after incidents involving 40 victims and 15 monks emerged in January this year. These cases do not appear in the 2010 statistics.

…

More cases are expected in future, according to Adrian von Kaenel, president of the church’s expert commission on sexual abuse in pastoral care.

“Unfortunately this phenomenon is a human phenomenon. It’s not just in the church. The offenders are from all ‘helping’ professions, like doctors and lawyers,” von Kaenel told swissinfo.ch.

But he expects the very old cases to drop off now. “We have had the peak, and I expect that it will settle down a little. But unfortunately there will always be new cases.”

Von Kaenel said prevention and sharing of information was starting to have an effect.

“I think the work has been significant. We have seen a certain success in these ten years that we [the commission] have existed.”

Special note to the Catholic League’s pedophilia protector William Donohue: The Catholic Church has a pedophilia problem on its hands, and an abuse problem on its hands, and your attempts to blame the gay community are bunk.

In 2010, BBC News reported,

Roman Catholic bishops in Switzerland have admitted that they underestimated the extent of sexual abuse committed by priests, and have offered an apology.

The Swiss Bishops’ Conference said it was “ashamed” and suggested victims should consider pressing criminal charges against the perpetrators.

Let’s be clear. Comments like, “It’s not just in the church. The offenders are from all ‘helping’ professions, like doctors and lawyers,” merely serves to continue the ruse that these abuses were not done by the Church, were not enabled by the Church, were not covered up by the Church, and — if the Church’s history in other countries, like the U.S., is any indication of what abuse in Switzerland is like — then that is as close to a falsehood as one can get.

Those “helping professionals” were also priests. The fact that they were professionals and found refuge in Mother Church makes it all the worse.