An exhaustive study on sexual abuse committed by priests and others within the Catholic Church in Switzerland has revealed the appearance of more than 1,000 cases since the mid-20th century, as published this Tuesday.
The year-long report, commissioned by the Swiss Bishops’ Conference and led by two historians from the University of Zurich, offers an in-depth and detailed look at cases of sexual abuse and harassment committed in the Swiss Church, which becomes the more recent. case of scandals that have hit the Catholic Church around the world.
In a statement, the authors of the study report that they identified 1,002 situations of sexual abuse (affecting 921 people), including cases in which there are accusations against 510 people.
“The situations identified certainly represent only the tip of the iceberg“explain historians Monika Dommann and Marietta Meier, in the same informative note.
Among other conclusions, the study reveals that more than half (56%) of the cases of sexual abuse involved men or boys, around 39% of the victims were women or girls and, for the remaining 5%, the report did not identifies victims by gender. .
Investigators examined thousands of pages of secret documents collected by church authorities since the mid-20th century, citing cases in which other reports were destroyed to cover up cases of wrongdoing.
With few exceptions, the alleged abusers are all men, and nearly three-quarters of the documents examined revealed that the sexual abuse involved minors.
Source: TSF
