In an interview with AdVaticanum, the former auxiliary bishop of Chur in Switzerland was asked about his 2025 article titled, “Homosexuality in Society and in the Church: An Elephant in the Room.”
In it, he identified “widespread homosexuality in the clergy and its significance in the abuse crisis” as the ignored “elephant in the room,” without which a proper evaluation of the abuse crisis is not possible.
“This is not a matter of my own subjective impressions or pastoral experience, but of pure statistics,” Eleganti said, adding that he “wrote to Pope Leo XIV about this.”
“All Church studies on abuse show a disproportionately high number of male victims,” he continued. “It does little good to turn a blind eye to this. There is a factual correlation, without implying that clergy with a homosexual orientation are predestined to commit abuse because of their orientation. The same applies to heterosexuals. There are also many cases of sexual abuse outside the Church, but society primarily focuses on and is scandalized by those within the clergy.”
Islam, the TLM, and the SSPX
In the same interview, Eleganti also discussed a variety of other subjects, including the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), and the ongoing Islamization of Europe.
He said the appeal for the many young people who attend the TLM is its focus “on God or Christ, rather than on the community.”
“Another is the palpable reverence associated with the encounter with the transcendent God or the present Christ,” he continued. “There is also the stillness and silence, reminiscent of the worship of the Lamb in the Book of Revelation. I believe people are also drawn to the solemnity and dignity of the vestments, liturgical objects, and the altar, as well as the overall design of the sanctuary. Finally, Gregorian chant, which has been a trend for some time, even in secular circles.”
Regarding the SSPX, which Eleganti has accused of planning a “schismatic act” with their episcopal consecrations without the consent of the Vatican, he said: “Many faithful simply love the traditional liturgy without truly identifying with the Society’s ideology.”
“I would not say that there is growing support for the Society of St Pius X among the faithful,” he argued.
Regarding the danger that Islam and mass migration from Muslim countries pose to Europe, the Swiss bishop stated, “Islam, not just so-called Islamism, is, by its very nature, an anti-Christian religion, in theory and in practice.”
“Christianity has never fared well under Islamic rule. This remains true today. Wherever Islam holds sway, Christianity is being decimated to the point of near extinction.”
“I consider Islam to be incompatible with the Judeo-Christian tradition of the West, which still strongly shapes our thinking and political system,” he stated. “The more Muslims are naturalized into our societies, the worse it could become unless Christ converts them and sets them free.”