“You shall not abuse it”, is the title of the book of interviews published by My Lord Charles Morerod, the bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg.
In these studios, things went difficult, you were in bad shape eight months ago. How do you feel? “At that time, I discovered when I arrived in front of the TV that I could no longer walk. So it was a little distressing for me. There, I arrived on foot.”
You arrived late between two Forum topics and 7:30 p.m., just after this interview in September 2023, you left immediately for the hospital. “Yes, I had surgery because of a double cranial hematoma. That’s why I couldn’t walk anymore. It was the last moment.”
You came very close to death. “When I arrived at the hospital, they didn’t tell me that. They told me that as soon as an operating room is free, they send you there. But I understood later that it was limited .”
Why did you wait so long? What happened well was that you were in Geneva, in a hospital specializing in neurosurgery. “It was good timing, I’m happy to have been there. I should have gone earlier, but I thought it would pass. The day before I was already having trouble walking. One of my colleagues had told me to go. But I didn’t go because of the interview I had the next day. I think if it hadn’t been for this interview, I think I would have gone to the hospital. , because the day before I was walking near the wall so as not to fall.”
it makes us think about death, the meaning of life, what do we say to ourselves, that this is a second life being offered to me? “Yes really, and that’s one of the reasons for this book of interviews but not only that. I told myself that in the end I was a little too patient. And by dint of being patient I almost didn’t able to do certain things. And yesterday I met people who work for the church in this diocese and one of the participants told me that she had never seen me like that. I had nothing left to lose. It’s an interesting light on myself. It’s the way she expressed it. In fact, I said to myself now I’m not going to think that things are going to get better if. we do things quietly, like for my health maybe we need to push a little more.
You take out this book signed Camille Kraft, “You will not abuse”.
You don’t really like these clothes, the pomp. “I have a somewhat divided opinion on this subject. A former Anglican worker priest said to an Anglican bishop in my presence in my 1st post in a fairly poor area of the suburbs of London, the Anglican bishop came dressed in biker. People said that he wouldn’t have come dressed like that if we were good people. It’s a mark of respect to go towards them like that, but that’s not what I really wanted.
We see it in the news, we have the impression that the abuses in the Church are not ending. You said that you encountered a lot of victims, around sixty you said last fall. “I don’t do it every day. Some victims, I’ve seen them more than 10 times. Others once. It changes the way you look at the situation like many things. It’s seeing things up close that we understand its meaning and in this case the suffering of a lifetime.
You yourself there was this investigation which is at the Vatican and which was piloted from Switzerland to find out whether or not you had covered people, where is it?
“It is finished. In the meantime, the attorney general of the canton of Friborg has issued an order which gives me optimism regarding this investigation, saying that all the information mentioned, the criticisms made to the bishop were already known before not the justice system and the police, he surveyed the prosecutors of all the French-speaking cantons, that’s the criminal plan, you are criminally cleared. All the information was already known. I don’t know. It was delivered to Rome at the beginning of January, but I don’t know the pace. It’s a big file, we’re talking about 1500 pages or 1800 if I remember correctly.
You set up commissions, the bishops released this study in September which revealed the extent of abuse in the Church, is everything being done today to ensure that this no longer happens? Are we prepared at the level of commissions, denunciation? Do you systematically report this to the courts and police?
“I systematically report all cases that come to my attention. And I add that a few years ago, within the framework of my bishopric in Fribourg, we organized a meeting with the authorities responsible for managing the abuse of minors in the four cantons of diocese, child and youth service style, the terminology varies And we told them but what do you do, child service, when you become aware of abuse of a minor? you systematically denounce it at the time, they said only with the victim’s agreement. This is what we had also done up until that moment. I said I can’t anymore. even if the victim does not accept, and I understand that it is not easy for the victim, nevertheless we cannot take the risk by saying nothing that a living abuser continues his abuse. Since then we have been doing it systematically.
Concrete case in Saitn Maurice of a priest who is on hunger strike because he found himself publicly accused by an alleged victim, he has been cleared three times by the courts, he wants to regain his situation. How do you react when the justice system says something and the victims say something else? and all this is on the meidatic stage.
“My knowledge of the case is partial. I believe that the victim took into account a testimony, this is the partial information that I have. I cannot comment on a remote court decision and apprehension of the victim whom I do not know. I understand the problem well, when one is cleared by the courts there is a resumption of innocence At the same time most of the cases of abuse that I know of are cases which are not criminally relevant. Obviously not in cases where the abuser is dead, there is no longer any reason to condemn him because he is no longer there. In prescribed cases where there is no proof, because doubt benefits the person. the innocent, we are always a little helpless But Al Capone everyone knew that he had killed himself and had a very large number of people killed, everyone knew it but we managed to stop him because of his behavior. accounting, then we have borderline cases, but in my case the law protects the accused
But you yourself publicly denounced the abuse of Msg Genoud towards a victim who came to see you, he can no longer defend himself he is dead, there is no real justice procedure, so we settle that a little in the public square, in the media court? Has it also become a bit of a recourse?
“A good question, not a simple one. What pushed me to do it in this specific case were two things. On the one hand, and this is one of the principles of the Zurich investigation, which says that in any case we In all likelihood we would have spoken, because we are not going to hide it from him. And the bishops are public figures. This investigation carried out by the University of Zurich has the principle of stating the names of the bishops as public figures, but not the priests. What pushed me the most was seeing this person who had suffered for a long time from carrying this weight inside of them, and who said that it was destroying me. It had to come out. It was difficult for me because it was. was for me to point out what my predecessor who was a friend and who had played a considerable role in my own vocation had done. I saw her again a few weeks later when she no longer needed medication and was able to sleep again. It made her feel better. I had the explicit fear that she wouldn’t survive.
All these cases call into question the status of the priest in the past in these small villages vc and fr, the priest was seen as an almost divine personality, it was not necessary to talk about denouncing it, the abuse was covered up for the parents too, this calls into question question az fibd your status also d homem consecrated. Should we deconstruct all of this?
“When I celebrated the ordination of Alain De Remy as auxiliary bishop of my diocese I said something whose impact I did not foresee. The Catholic Church no longer has the predominant place in the canton of Friborg that she once had, it’s good news for the state and for the church. In fact it helps us to be better ourselves than when we are put on a stable footing. said that and at the end of the mass a State Councilor said thank you I didn’t think that one day I would hear such a thing. There was something artificial, being placed on an estale foot, quite a few priests have that. suffered, when they were able to get off after the Vatican 2 council, they hurried to get off. Not in all ways.
We really came down, a little too much, because now you are a little suspected, when you are a priest you have to carry a little of this suspicion because of all these abuses.
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