After the abuse scandal: the Federal Council expects the Catholic Church to come to terms with it thoroughly

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

The Federal Council expects that the Catholic Church will tackle sexual abuse quickly and thoroughly. He wrote this in an answer to a question to the National Council.

The answer goes on to say that he also expects the Catholic Church to combat abuse effectively. The state government also writes that the Federal Council is concerned about the new findings about the extent of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Cantons responsible

This text also states that it is not the responsibility of the Federal Council to assess the role of the Papal Nuncio to Switzerland in this matter. The cantons are responsible for regulating the relationship between church and state.

The Federal Council also refers to the responsibility of the cantons in another question: whether, in view of the abuse scandal, it is willing to consider the possibility of exempting companies from church tax in the tax harmonization law. “It is within the competence of the cantons to decide whether and how they want to levy a church tax on legal entities,” the state government said.

Catholic clergy and members of religious orders have committed at least a thousand cases of sexual abuse in Switzerland over the past seventy years. This is evident from the first analysis of secret archives of Roman Catholic institutions by historians from the University of Zurich. Their report was presented to the public last week. (SDA/rus)

Source:Blick