Jean Scarcella decided to give up his role as abbot of Saint-Maurice (VS), the abbey announced on Saturday. A report presented last week pointed out a “deficient” management of sexual abuse in the institution.
Bishop Scarcella claims in a press release that she “acquired the certainty (…) that it is now up to life forces to implement the measures decided in our action plan”. He reiterated his request for forgiveness to the victims and the faithful. He “hopes that decisions will help eliminate all forms of abuse”.
Pope Leo XIV accepted the renunciation of Father-Abbé, specifies the abbey. The management of the institution is assumed by Simon Previte, as a capitular vicar. A new abbot must be elected by the end of September.
Jean Scarcella had himself been implicated, accused of having had an inappropriate gesture in the past. Cantonal justice had classified the case and the abbot had resumed his duties three months ago. The Roman Catholic Central Conference in Switzerland (RKZ) had regretted this return, seeing it as an infringement of the credibility of the measures taken against abuse.
“Significant number” abuse
An independent working group has noted “important dysfunctions” in the management of sexual abuse within the abbey in recent decades. A “significant number” of acts of sexual violence of all kinds committed between 1950 and 2022 were revealed in the group report presented last week.
It took revelations in the media in 2023, notably in the program “Development” of the RTS, so that the Abbey loads the Attorney General Neuchâtels Pierre Aubert to conduct the investigation alongside researchers from the University of Friborg.
The abbey has in the wake announced a series of measures, which concern in particular the reception of victims, the overhaul of governance, prevention or even the work of memory.
This article was published automatically. Source: ATS
