The President of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, has admitted he neglected a serious abuse case when he was Bishop of Basle.
“I have to admit that viewed from today the way I handled the case did not work satisfactorily and that it was a mistake that I did not use the appropriate measures that were provided at the time,” Koch told the Swiss tabloid Sonntagsblick on 1 October.
“If I have given the victims the impression that I did not take them seriously, I deeply regret this and ask them for forgiveness.”
He said the diocesan authorities had wanted to go through the perpetrator’s file personally and “clarify matters” first, but not in order to hide anything.
According to Zurich University’s Swiss Abuse Study published in September, the perpetrator, who died in 2019, was allegedly observed kissing a nine-year-old boy, accused of inviting young boys to a sauna and asking them to undress publicly on excursions.
Although several victims reported the abuse to the Basle diocesan authorities from 2003, Koch – who was Bishop of Basle from 1996 to 2010 – had not begun a preliminary investigation as required by Church guidelines nor reported the case to the Vatican.
After his appointment to Rome, Koch’s successor Bishop Felix Gmür had not undertaken anything either.
Gmür had assumed “that the then Bishop Koch – to the best of his knowledge and belief – done everything he could”, the diocese said.
According to the Swiss Abuse Study, the perpetrator priest had assured the diocesan authorities that he “never had any form of sexual contact with the young boys”, but the Basle diocesan authorities continued to receive abuse accusations until he died aged 75 in 2019.
The Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg is being governed by an “interim council” after its vicar-general resigned while its bishop is in hospital.
Fr Bernatrd Sonney left his post after undisclosed accusations of abuse and an investigation has begun. The Swiss Abuse Report also mentioned allegations that the hospitalised Bishop Charles Morerod covered up abuse.
The authors of the study have asked the Vatican to let them look at the Vatican files on abuse by Swiss priests.
“We will have to think about this together. On the one hand we want transparency – but on the other, the files contain statements by witnesses who have asked for absolute secrecy. We cannot go against their wishes,” said Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
On 24 September, the Swiss nuncio, Archbishop Martin Krebs, had assured the Sonntagsblick that he was seeking “viable solutions” to this impasse.
In Germany, a statue of a cardinal has been removed from a cathedral after the diocese acknowledged plausible allegations of abuse against him.
Contractors removed and dismantled the statue of Cardinal Franz Hengsbach which stood outside Essen Cathedral, after the Diocese of Essen said that he was suspected of two cases of abuse.
Hengsbach, who died in 1991, was the Bishop of Essen from 1958 until his death. The current Bishop of Essen Franz-Josef Overbeck said that he had heard of the allegations in 2011 but the Vatican ruled that they were not plausible.
“I must now admit that the accusations were misjudged in 2011 and that those affected were wronged,” he wrote in a letter to parishes.
The chair of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, said it was “a really very difficult situation” but “everything must be put on the table”.