Shedding light on the potential involvement of other people, full admission of one’s responsibilities and past mistakes, urging the victims to step forward. This is how the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Freiburg and the Swiss Capuchin Friars respond to the publication of Daniel Pittet’s book, “Father, I forgive you”. A release issued today by the Swiss Bishops Conference says: “Even if the case was turned into a media sensation in 2008, the book, with its many details, describes the bleak mechanisms that gave free rein to the harmful, manipulative behaviour of a paedophile”. “The Swiss Bishops Conference and religious orders have repeatedly taken responsibility for such cases of church abuse. In this specific case, the Capuchin Friars and the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Freiburg deplore the mistakes they committed at the time”. At this stage, the notice points out that the J.A. case was brought to court three times. In 1995, J.A. was first charged with sex abuse in Saint-Maurice, but the judge could not admit it, because it had lapsed. In 2002, the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Freiburg set up the “SOS Prevention Commission”, which two alleged victims of J.A. went to. The information collected by such Commission and other submitted records prompted an investigation on J.A. in Freiburg. On November 3rd 2008, the judge confirmed that, while the preliminary investigation led to find another 22 victims, all such cases had lapsed, though, so no formal charge could be admitted. During the preliminary investigations, J.A. admitted he had abused another two victims in France from 1992 to 1995. So, the case was referred to the public prosecutor of Grenoble. On January 5th 2012, J.A. was sentenced by the Criminal Court of Grenoble to a suspended prison sentence of two years. No other preventative measure was recommended as a result of the trial.

Questioned about the detailed information in Daniel Pittet’s book, monsignor Charles Morerod, bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Freiburg and president of the Swiss Bishops Conference, says he wants to take this opportunity “to shed light on the potential involvement of other people”. The Swiss Capuchin Friars “admit the charges and the fact that the way they dealt with the offenders, which was fashionable back then, let them commit more rapes. To protect the reputation of the Church or of the Order, they tried to solve the problem on their own, through their own rules – the Swiss Bishops Conference’s release goes on –, for instance by removing or banning such priests from ministry. The transfers made it easier to hid the facts from the new dioceses”. Unfortunately, once again, the victims’ reports and information were not taken seriously. And this is clearly described in Daniel Pittet’s book. Assisted by an “independent judicial authority”, the Swiss Capuchin Friars ensure they want to “shed light and establish the identity of the new cases revealed by Daniel Pittet’s story, because they do not want to hide what happened; and they will find out whether there were more victims”. The release states that the Capuchin Friars “have learnt their lesson from such sad events and have taken several measures to prevent such facts ever occurring again”. It is “a zero-tolerance policy for such crimes” which has now been added to the “Guidelines” adopted by the Swiss Bishops Conference as well as by the Swiss Union of Major Superiors. “The victims – the bishops and priests conclude – are called to step forward and go to court, and the lapsed cases that the Swiss judges cannot take into consideration will at least undergo a canon procedure. There is also a compensation fund for lapsed cases”.