Priest in the canton of Vaud suspended after abuse allegations
Published: Sunday, Sep 22nd 2024, 16:40
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A Catholic priest in a parish in the canton of Vaud has been suspended following allegations of abuse. "As soon as the bishop received information about a criminal complaint, the priest in question was banned from office for the duration of the investigation," the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg told the Keystone-SDA news agency.
A criminal complaint was filed in the spring and a police investigation was launched. The "Sonntagsblick" first reported on this.
The bishop, Charles Morerod, refrained from making any further comment on the case, a spokeswoman said in response to an inquiry. The priest concerned had already been confronted with allegations of abuse of minors and the use of therapies against homosexuality in 2019, as became known at the beginning of 2020.
Accusations were also made against Bishop Morerod last year - by a priest: the bishop had known about sexual abuse by three priests in his diocese, but had not reported it. However, the Freiburg public prosecutor's office did not recognize any criminally relevant abuse and did not act on the allegations.
Catholic clerics and members of religious orders have committed at least 1002 cases of sexual abuse in Switzerland over the past 70 years. This was revealed in a first analysis of secret archives of Roman Catholic institutions published in September 2023 by historians at the University of Zurich (UZH).
©Keystone/SDA
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