(ZENIT News / Berne, 02.07.2024).- The Berne Executive responded firmly to a motion presented on February 5, requesting the suspension of municipal contributions to the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland, following a Report on sexual abuses.
The motion, presented after the publication of the Report of the University of Zurich on abuses committed in the Catholic Church in Switzerland since the ‘50s, requested a stop to extending or signing new service contracts with the Church until an integral plan was implemented to investigate the abuses committed.
However, the Berne Executive considers that the measures taken by the Church are sufficient to prevent further attacks and that the suspension of contributions has no legal foundation. It pointed out that the diocese of Basel has developed a strategy for the prevention of abuses and that there is no legal foundation to suspend the contributions.
The Canton of Berne pays all national Churches a contribution for their functioning and for the services of general interest they provide, so the Government’s decision has important implications in the ecclesiastical and financial sphere.
