Abuse study also has consequences for the reformed
Published: Thursday, Apr 18th 2024, 11:30
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In 2023, more people in German-speaking Switzerland left the Reformed churches than ever before. According to a survey, this development is also the result of the discussions surrounding sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
A total of 38,073 church members left the Reformed Church last year, according to a survey of the cantonal churches published on Thursday by ref.ch, the media portal of the Reformed Churches.
This represents an increase of just over a quarter compared to the previous year. In 2022, 30,393 people left the Reformed Church, compared to 28,540 in the previous year. The figures for the Protestant Reformed Churches in Ticino and French-speaking Switzerland are not included in the survey.
The trend therefore affects all cantonal churches. However, there were major differences between the cantons. In the cantons of Lucerne, Basel-Landschaft and Graubünden, the number of people leaving the church increased by more than 40 percent, whereas in Aargau it rose by just 12 percent.
"Shot up into the sky"
In many regions, there was a clear connection to the publication of a study on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
Until September, the Reformed Church in the canton of Lucerne recorded fewer resignations than in the same period last year, wrote ref.ch. After that, the number of people leaving skyrocketed.
It was noticeable that there were three times as many resignations in September and twice as many in October as usual, Simona Starzynski, communications officer at the Zug church, was quoted in the article.
"We assume that there was at least a temporary boost after the presentation of the pilot study. That's why the number of people leaving is significantly higher than in the previous year," Markus Dütschler, Head of Communications at the Reformed Churches of Bern-Jura-Solothurn, told the news site.
Exodus among the Catholics
On September 12, 2023, the University of Zurich published a report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. This documented 1002 cases in the Catholic Church in Switzerland since the middle of the 20th century.
As a result, many Catholic parishes experienced waves of resignations, as a survey by the Keystone-SDA news agency showed in December.
In the Roman Catholic parish of Winterthur, for example, there were 486 resignations from the beginning of September to the beginning of December. In the two previous years, the figures were 158 and 161 respectively. In Basel-Stadt, the number of resignations rose from 36 to 174 between August and September. And the figures also remained high in October (164) and November (115).
Reformed people reappraise history
The Reformed Church has yet to systematically deal with cases of sexualized violence. Rita Famos, President of the Protestant Reformed Church of Switzerland (EKS), said on SRF Radio's "Tagesgespräch" shortly before Christmas that the Protestant Reformed Church had also looked the other way for too long. They are looking for ways to come to terms with the past. A separate national study in Switzerland and payments to victims are also being discussed.
©Keystone/SDA
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