Further calls to blacklist paedophile priests 

President Doris Leuthard has called for a central register of paedophile priests, to prevent them from having further contact with children. Her statement came as a sexual abuse scandal sweeps the Catholic Church worldwide, with Swiss police too investigating allegations that children were harmed by priests. 

Swissifno.ca

Mar 28, 2010 - 15:53  

“Whether perpetrators come from the civil or clerical world makes no difference. Both are subject to Swiss criminal law, with no ifs or buts,” Leuthard told the SonntagsZeitung and Le Matin Dimanche newspapers.

She said it was important to ensure that paedophiles had no further contact with children and the possibility of a register for paedophile priests should be considered, on the lines of one for teachers.

Swiss bishops have made reservations about such a list, but have not ruled it out. Reports say they are considering holding an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.

The Swiss Catholic church is apparently set to counter the negative publicity from the sex abuse scandal with an advertising campaign in each of the country’s 2,000 parishes.

A survey found an overwhelming majority of respondents coming out in favour of blacklisting paedophile priests.

Nine out of ten people taking part in the survey also want the church to report cases of sexual abuse by priests to the justice authorities.

About 41 per cent of Swiss residents are Catholics.

Urs Geiser, swissinfo.ch

Reuters India

Sun Mar 28, 2010 6:18pm IST 

GENEVA (Reuters) - Swiss President Doris Leuthard called on Sunday for a central register of paedophile priests, to prevent them from having further contact with children.

Her statement to Swiss media came as a sexual abuse scandal sweeps the Catholic Church worldwide, with Swiss police too investigating allegations that children were harmed by priests.

"Whether perpetrators come from the civil or clerical world makes no difference. Both are subject to Swiss criminal law, with no ifs or buts," Leuthard said.

Leuthard said it was important to ensure that paedophiles had no further contact with children and the possibility of a register for paedophile priests should be considered, on the lines of one for teachers.

The Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung reported that the Swiss bishops' conference was considering holding an emergency meeting, where the question of a register could be discussed, ahead of its regular annual meeting from May 31 to June 2.

The Swiss church plans to counter the negative publicity from the sex abuse scandal with an advertising campaign in which posters saying "More Good News" would be displayed in churches in each of Switzerland's 2,000 parishes, another weekly, Sonntag, reported.

(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn)

swissinfo.ch

21 March 2010

The Swiss Bishops Conference says the church in Switzerland does not need to take further steps on sex abuse, saying a letter released by the pope on Saturday was enough.

A spokesman for the Bishops Conference told the Swiss News Agency the interests of victims were already top priority for the church.

Walter Müller on Saturday said the pastoral letter, addressed to the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, was relevant to Switzerland as well.

“The letter confirmed the directives the church established in 2002 for cases of sexual abuse,” Müller said.

Pope Benedict XVI slammed Irish bishops for "grave errors of judgment" in handling clerical sex abuse and ordered an investigation into the Irish church but did not mention any Vatican responsibility.

On Friday Chur diocese in eastern Switzerland said it was looking into ten new possible cases of sexual abuse by priests.

The abbot of a monastery in the diocese said at least three of the 77 monks at Einsiedeln, in canton Schwyz, had committed acts of abuse since he took up office in December 2001 but no legal action had been taken in any of the cases.

"The victims or their representatives said expressly that they did not want it," Abbot Martin Werlen told Swiss television. There had also been two cases of abuse at the monastery school in the 1970s, resulting in one monk being moved to another post.

A priest from Chur resigned on Wednesday after admitting to sexually abusing children in the 1970s.