Can Leo XIV help the Swiss Church out of its crisis?
The small Swiss Church is complicated. Can Leo work it out?
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.
I should preface my comment by saying I think your work is outstanding. Your coverage of the conclave gave me the needed push to become a paying subscriber, and the Pillar is the only media I subscribe to. That's to say how much I appreciate your reporting.
That said, I'm a Catholic living in Switzerland, and there are a few things I'd like to point out.
1. The term "synod", regarding the cantonal bodies, is a bit misleading. What we do have is 26 different administrative bodies, called federations, one in each canton (which is to say in each state). These federations are in charge of the administrative, financial and juridical (as in civil law, not Church law) aspects of Church life and are made necessary by the fact that there are 26 states in such a small country, i.e. 26 different models of relations between Church and state (including several Church tax configurations, from none at all to mandatory), and by the fact that all dioceses spread over several cantons. For example, here is a link to a page where the Church in the Vaud canton has organisational charts : https://www.cath-vd.ch/organisation/
A federation's prerogatives are typically limited to:
- formally employing Church personnel (after they are nominated by the bishop) and paying their salaries;
- managing the finances (included keeping a watch on the way parochial finances are managed);
- managing the buildings, after the bishop's approval in the case of sales or desecrations;
- approving parish fusions or modifications of a parish's territorial boundaries (after the bishop's approval);
- defining the way it collaborates with parishes;
- arbitrating legal (civil law) disputes.
A federation has a legislative organ, the assembly, made of representatives from parishes, institutions, clergy and lay pastoral assistants. Some are elected by their peers, some, like the episcopal delegate, are members de jure. It has an executive organ, its committee.
These federations are gathered in a national federation of federations.
2. Whatever one thinks about the way he handles it, Bishop Morerod is trying very hard to do right by the victims with respect to the abuse crisis. The letter he received from then-cardinal Prevost did indeed point out that canonical procedures had not been followed, but what is missing from the article is that they were not followed, not because Bp. Morerod did nothing, but because, for better or for worse, he gave priority to civil law procedures. Cdl. Prevost's letter also pointed out that he is particularly supportive of the victims. As a side note, he is a firm defender of male ordination.
3. Fr. Betticher is a controversial figure. At the time when he was in charge of the LGF diocese's officiality, he mishandled several abuse cases. He is now widely seen, including by abuse victims defense groups, as desperately trying to deflect the blame from himself and salvage his reputation. The claims he made against various Swiss bishops were all found to be unfounded. See here, for example: https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/14319595-des-victimes-dabus-au-sein-de-leglise-denoncent-la-posture-jugee-hypocrite-de-nicolas-betticher.html
4. The nomination of Bp. Grögli is a specific case. Since the 19th century, and for reasons I can't claim to understand, the diocese is one of those which have a privilege of electing its bishop via a conclave of the cathedral canons. What happens is that the Vatican validates a shortlist of potential candidates, the canons vote, the Vatican confirms the choice. Pope Leo pretty much had his hands tied there. Whatever he does next, I imagine he will exercise caution and try not to frontally oppose some liberal forces. There have been precedents (notably in the rather liberal diocese of Chur, where the cathedral chapter elected the late conservative bishop Vitus Huonder during the pontificate of Benedict XVI) which did not go well.
The Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland has always been a conundrum. It is a place of great theological insight but also has always been a place that belies its beautiful Alpen countryside as a center of dissension, as I think about most of the Swiss hierarchy over the last 50 years and especially Fr. Hans Kung who is probably most noted for rejecting the doctrine of papal infallibility and also later in life the prohibition against euthanasia. Switzerland was also, as the author notes, the birthplace of Ulrich Zwingli and also quickly became the permanent home of John Calvin and a certain brand of continental Reformed Protestantism called Calvinism which viciously far outstripped German Lutheran rejection of the Roman Catholic liturgy. And, yet it was the Swiss who gave their lives to defend the Vatican against attack by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V in 1527. And, the Swiss priests I have met over the years are good, holy and intelligent men. For such a tiny country that focuses on watches and chocolate, Switzerland is indeed a mystery.