A public prosecutor’s office in Switzerland has closed an investigation into alleged inappropriate conduct toward young people by an abbot who serves as a member of the Swiss bishops’ conference.
The Swiss daily newspaper Blick reported Oct. 6 that Beatrice Pilloud, the Attorney General of the Canton of Valais, had confirmed the closure of the case against Abbot Jean Scarcella, the 72-year-old head of the Territorial Abbey of Saint-Maurice.
As a territorial abbot, the canonical equivalent of a diocesan bishop, Scarcella is one of the nine members of the Swiss bishops’ conference.
The abbot stood aside from office last year, pending the results of a canonical preliminary investigation into the allegations. The results of that investigation are currently being studied in Rome.
The Blick newspaper said the reason for the case’s closure was unclear because Scarcella, a member of the Swiss Congregation of Canons Regular of Saint Maurice of Agaune, had refused to allow journalists to view the discontinuation order. It said it was challenging the decision.
The newspaper reported that Scarcella, a piano teacher before he joined the abbey in 1984, was accused of harassing young people while they played the piano. It said that one young person had informed the pope of an alleged incident.
The Swiss Catholic news website cath.ch said that at least two people had reported allegations against Scarcella to Church authorities.
“The allegations concerned ‘pressure’ exerted by the canon on minors during piano lessons,” it said, adding that the accusations were still being considered by two internal Church investigations.
The Abbey of Saint-Maurice — founded in 515 on the reputed site of the martyrdom of the 3rd-century St. Maurice — was plunged into crisis in September 2023.
The Swiss bishops’ conference announced on Sept. 10, 2023, that the Vatican had asked the Diocese of Chur’s Bishop Joseph Bonnemain to undertake a preliminary canonical investigation into claims against several retired and active conference members.
The announcement came after former bishops’ conference spokesman Fr. Nicolas Betticher sent a May 25, 2023, letter to Archbishop Martin Krebs, the apostolic nuncio to Switzerland, criticizing the conference members’ conduct.
Abbot Scarcella said on Sept. 13, 2023, that he was stepping aside from his post following an unspecified allegation.
“The investigations also concern an accusation made against me,” he said. “I have assured Bishop Bonnemain of my full cooperation.”
“To guarantee the investigation’s independence, I have decided, in consultation with the abbot’s council and the president of the bishops’ conference, to suspend my office as Abbot of Saint-Maurice until the preliminary investigation has been completed.”
A day later, the Swiss bishops’ conference published a long-awaited study identifying 1,002 “situations of sexual abuse” in the local Church since the mid-20th century.
After Scarcella stepped aside, Fr. Roland Jaquenoud was appointed as the monastery’s interim head. But on Nov. 19, the Swiss public television channel RTS aired a program highlighting allegations against nine canons at the Abbey of Saint-Maurice, including Jaquenoud.
On Nov. 23, the abbey said Jaquenoud had stepped aside and it had asked Rome to appoint a delegate to take over the leadership of the community, which it said was “obviously too fragile.”
On Nov. 28, Pope Francis appointed Fr. Jean-Michel Girard, a member of the Canons Regular of the Hospitaller Congregation of Great Saint Bernard, as the abbey’s apostolic administrator.
In February this year, the abbey said it had asked Pierre Aubert, the Attorney General of the Canton of Neuchâtel, to form an independent working group to examine its handling of abuse cases over several decades.
“This investigation is not intended to replace the investigations ordered by the competent judicial authorities and Mr. Aubert is acting as an expert rather than a prosecutor,” it explained.
The Blick newspaper said the working group was expected to present its conclusions in the summer of 2025.
Also in February, the Chur diocese announced that Bishop Bonnemain had completed the canonical preliminary investigation into allegations against members of the Swiss bishops’ conference and other clergy, with the help of the Zurich criminal law professor Brigitte Tag and Neuchâtel chief judge Pierre Cornu.
Bonnemain personally delivered a 24-page final report, drawing on 1,800 pages of documentation, to Vatican officials.
“The files are now being studied in the Vatican, which could take some time,” the diocese said. “Officials in the Roman Curia will then draw their conclusions, make decisions, and communicate them in an appropriate manner.”
