As we walk through the main floor of the bishop's palace on our way to his office, Bishop Joseph Bonnemain points out to me some pictures that one of his predecessors had commissioned to represent the virtues of a bishop. He smiles and comments that they are an "invitation to an examination of conscience". I do not ask him which is more necessary, but I notice the representation of the "prudentissimus" bishop. According to what Josef Pieper writes about prudence, in the prudent person "the knowledge of reality" would be "molded towards the realization of the good", and it seems to me very timely in the context of this meeting.
Monsignor Bonnemain explains that this "palatial" area of the House is no longer functional and that, when the necessary money can be raised, his intention is to restore it and make it accessible to visitors. The roots of this episcopal see of Chur (in Spanish, Coira or Cuera) go back a long way. It existed as early as the 5th century; it is the oldest in Switzerland, and even older, the oldest north of the Alps.
I converse animatedly with Monsignor Joseph Bonnemain for several hours. We converse in Spanish: Bonnemain was born in Barcelona and speaks it fluently, although with the occasional insecurities that are logical for someone who does not use a language on a regular basis.
If you like, let's start by getting to know the person of the Bishop of Chur. Who is Joseph Bonnemain?
- An apprentice. I think that to know God and to know man is like diving into two infinities. Therefore, I am more and more aware that we have to learn. In my youth I heard it said of the early Christians: "See how they love each other". That phrase made me a little nervous, because I thought: "see how they love", and not "how they love": how they love, with a love open to all creatures.
I have always been accompanied by the desire to learn to love. In this one is an apprentice until the end of life. And it is also the theme of the "Fratelli tutti"from the Pope. I am an apprentice.
In Swiss public opinion, two traits of his character are known, which are probably related to each other. The first is his fondness for sports...
- My father was a great sportsman, and he did all kinds of sports. As soon as I was a month old he signed me up for a swimming club in Barcelona, where we lived, and he used to take me swimming. I always swam a lot. When I was a student I started to have problems with my back, specifically in the back of my neck, and I started to do weights. I've also done jogging, some soccer and other things, but I've never been a fan of it. athlete.
Then I tried to do sport regularly, in principle twice a week: because I always liked it very much, and perhaps also a little out of vanity, to keep myself in good shape. Since I've been a bishop, it's quite difficult. It is already an achievement if I manage, with effort, to go once a week to the gym. When I became a bishop, a television network wanted to make a program about me, and among other things they filmed me doing weights; that's when the myth started that I do weightlifting.
Another trait is your approachable and direct nature. You get along well with people, and they appreciate that.
- If a bishop does not feel close to the people and is not at the disposition of the People of God, what good is he? This is what the Pope calls "having the smell of sheep", and it is fundamental for a bishop. A shepherd without sheep? He would be wasting his time.
In any case, it is not a trait I have only as a bishop. Before that, for thirty-six years I was close to the sick from morning to night in the hospital where I was chaplain. This very intense personal contact with the sick, with their families, with the 1,300 employees and collaborators of the hospital, from the head doctors to the cleaning staff, has always filled my life. Getting to know them and to get to know them, to become one with the joys, the sorrows, the struggles, the problems, the misfortunes of many people every day, has been a school of life. And not much has changed being a bishop.
Does he resemble Pope Francis in that respect?
- I have the impression that when the Pope is with the people, he lights up. It is as if the tiredness or the problems he carries on his shoulders disappear. The same thing happens to me: when I am with the people, my energy comes back, the illusion of living.
In your years as a hospital chaplain, what has been most fulfilling to you?
- I like to say that the sick have been my great educators. If I ever do anything sensible as a bishop, it will be because the sick have educated me. On some occasions I have told - although not yet in the Spanish-speaking world - that at the beginning of my service as chaplain I met a sick man, an Italian in his fifties, who was in the terminal phase of cancer. I still had the mentality of a young priest, more or less recently ordained, and almost inexperienced, thinking that in life everything is either black or white, good or bad, without nuances. I was worried because this man was going to die and I did not want him to die without receiving the sacraments. I went to see him once, and he made an excuse: "Now is not a good time..., I am busy. Come another day. After three or four days I tried again, and again he said, "The physiotherapist is coming, I can't." I was getting more and more nervous. I was getting more and more nervous: this man is going to die without the sacraments! On the fourth or fifth attempt he looked at me and said: "Look, Father, what happens is that you scare me. You are young, you have two doctorates, you are a sportsman. No! What I need is an old, fat and good capuchin".
At that moment I thought, "Sepp, here is the Holy Spirit speaking. You have to change. An old, fat, good cappuccino. Good!". You learn from the sick, indeed.
Are you still caring for the sick?
- No, of course not! I have a certain relationship with the medical world, of course. For example, last year, the Swiss association of hospital directors invited me to give a lecture at their congress; two weeks ago, the national association of specialists in ultrasound diagnostics, which brings together some 800 doctors, asked me to give a lecture at their congress held nearby in Davos. Likewise, all the chief physicians of the hospital, or the intensive care staff, have come to visit me here in the bishopric. Yes, I am still in touch, but it is a very different thing from when I was chaplain.
After medical school, he studied canon law. A large part of your service to the diocese has been related to the diocesan courts. What have you learned, and what have you been able to contribute, as judicial vicar?
- Yes, I have been a judicial vicar for forty years. As you know, in that function, we mainly study marriage annulments. I have been able to contemplate the whole range of possibilities in that area. When I had been, let us say, twenty-five years dedicating myself to this, I thought that I had already heard all the nonsense that the human heart can do; however, every day a new story came along, something unbelievable. That is why I often repeat that I have known all the pathology of human love.
But as I have become more aware of this pathology, I have not become skeptical; on the contrary, I have become more enthusiastic about human love. I have become more convinced that marriage is a faithful and lifelong relationship - and open to life - between man and woman, that it is a school of life, an incredible enterprise.
Since I have been dealing with sexual abuse issues, I have come to the conviction that it is a mistake to reduce the problem to the abuse of minors by clergy. It is not a good approach. I have learned, above all, two things. The first is that we must also consider abuse of adults, men or women. Where there is a sensual or sexual theme or contact between two adults in a relationship of dependence, there is abuse, because the one who is in charge of spiritual or pastoral care is in a relationship of superiority with respect to the person he is accompanying or treating. The second is that canon law should not be limited to considering crimes of abuse by clerics. For example, in our German-speaking dioceses in Switzerland, thirty-five to forty percent of those responsible for pastoral care are lay people, not clerics, and they too can abuse. I have presented these two experiences on several occasions through the Bishops' Conference in view of the reforms of the Canon Criminal Law, and finally these two issues have entered the current criminal law.
Even so, it is still difficult for the idea of adult abuse to permeate recent legislation and documents of the universal Church.
What milestones stand out in the past three years since you assumed the leadership of the diocese?
- It depends on what we consider "milestones". I remember now something that, more than a milestone, is a very dear moment for me. It concerns the administration of Confirmation to a group in a parish in Zurich. When I administer Confirmation to young people, I have a meeting with the confirmands a few weeks beforehand. On this occasion the catechist had prepared the meeting in such a way that each of the confirmands had a few moments to tell a little about himself - who he was, what he wanted to do in life -, light a candle and make a wish. It was the turn of a seventeen-year-old boy, originally from Zurich, who, in front of all his companions, lit the candle and expressed this wish: "I ask God that until the end of my life I do not lose my faith". At that moment I thought: just to hear that is worth being a bishop.
And another moment that can also be considered a milestone. It is well known that in the diocese there is a great polarization within the clergy, between the progressives, who would like to change everything, and the traditionalists, who think that everything should remain as it has always been. That is the situation that I found when I was appointed bishop, and that I already knew. Well, two years ago, together with the Presbyteral Council, we wanted to organize a pilgrimage with the priests of the diocese to Sachseln, where St. Nicholas of Flüe, Brother Klaus, who is considered throughout Switzerland as the intercessor of peace and harmony, is buried. We wanted not only those of one "fraction" to come, but also that by going on pilgrimage together we could come a little closer to each other. And at the end of the pilgrimage, as evening was falling, a priest came up to me and said: "You know, Joseph, I have been talking to a brother priest. I have been talking to a brother priest to whom I had made a firm decision never to speak to again in my life.
For me, these are two of the important milestones in these three years. Apart from that, there is the publication of the Code of Conduct of the diocese, concerning the promotion of a just relationship of proximity and distance. Also, a few months ago we published a document or vademecum for the transformation of the diocese in a synodal sense. And we are preparing a diocesan year for 2025-2026, which will have as its theme "Pilgrims of Hope", the same motto of the Jubilee Holy Year.
What does the synodal transformation of the diocese consist of?
- In short, it is a matter of applying the criteria of knowing how to listen together, and not trying to implement our own plans on the basis of our own ideas or convictions. We should act with the openness of knowing that the Holy Spirit is speaking to me through what others are saying. Synodality is walking together, trying to discern what God wants. And this at all levels, from the parish council to the leadership of a cantonal ecclesiastical body, in the Curia, etc. There is even a point in the vade-mecum in which the bishop commits himself to appointing a new bishop, when necessary, synodically; I do not know yet how I am going to concretize it.
Your episcopal appointment was a personal decision of Pope Francis, and he has also decided that you will remain in office at least until 2026. What is the Pope's purpose?
- Yes, Pope Francis wrote to me that I should not resign until at least five years after my appointment; what happens after 2026 is open.
Surely the appointment by the Pope responds to the context of a complicated diocese with an enormous polarization. It was a question of finding a way to return to ecclesial normality. I suppose he tried to appoint others who did not accept, and in the end he had no choice but to ask Joseph Bonnemain. I do not think that from the beginning the Pope was enthusiastic about me, but in the end in Rome they must have thought that it was a good solution since I know the diocesan Curia very well after working in it for forty years.
My opinion is that a bishop should not have noble or aristocratic pretensions, and for my taste it would be necessary to do away with all those distinctive symbols. In any case, I do not want to impose it on anyone.
Joseph Bonnemain, Bishop of Chur
What is the diocese of Chur like?
- It is a complex diocese. It covers seven cantons, with diverse cultural traditions. In addition, there is a properly ecclesiastical religious organization and a civil one: it is the so-called "dual system", which is not unique to the diocese of Chur but to almost all of Switzerland.
When the State considered the possibility of taking over the collection of church taxes, it made it a condition that the institution it was going to support should have a democratic structure. For this reason, Catholic organizations of cantonal public law were created, recognized by the State, which collect the taxes and also administer them. Duality also exists at the parish level. The parish is not only an institution of canon law, but its faithful constitute a parallel civil figure: it receives the taxes, pays the salaries of those who work in the parish, hires and fires them - including the parish priest - and takes care of a large part of the administration of the goods.
The two aspects, canonical and civil, work in a coordinated manner. This has its advantages, because the priest and those responsible for pastoral care can concentrate on the pastoral aspects, while the administration, financing, construction, repair of the church, etc., are done by these public law entities. Conversely, it is clear that in some way the latter conditions the former, because he who has the money has the power; moreover, it makes all decision-making processes slow, as is often the case in Switzerland.
Forty years ago I thought that this system should be eliminated, but now I think it is not necessary; it can be a good system if the people involved have the right position and mentality as faithful. There is no perfect system, and while we are on earth everything material, financial and organizational is perfectible. The dual system has its pluses and minuses; but it all depends on the people. It is a matter of winning hearts, understanding people, taking great care of dialogue and exchange.
It is unthinkable for a Swiss at heart not to be counted on when it comes to making decisions. A Swiss person who thinks "in Swiss" is committed in a responsible way to the common good at the local level: in the fire department, in the children's school, etc.; and, if I am actively committed, I have the right to participate in the decisions. Similarly, in the Church, one cannot expect that one commits oneself and then the parish priest or the bishop alone decides; this does not work.
I cannot appoint a parish priest in this way, directly. When a parish becomes vacant, both the diocesan Curia and the parish public law entity publish an announcement so that priests who might be interested in changing parishes can apply. A dialogue about candidates then begins between the Curia and the parish entity. A discernment council is created: they interview them, they go to the Masses they celebrate, they ask them about their opinion on various topics, and with that X-ray they choose one of them, or none of them. Then, they ask me if this could be the candidate, and I formally present him to be elected by the assembly of the parish entity of public ecclesiastical law; if so, they present him to me so that I can appoint him. Afterwards, they will be the ones to pay his salary, or fire him if they are dissatisfied.
It can be a complicated system, but I believe once again that the recipe is to be close to the people, understand them and motivate them for what is right.
Earlier you mentioned tensions in the clergy. Are there any "Synodal Way" type movements here in Germany?
- No. From the beginning, in Switzerland the path we have followed is the synodal process of the universal Church. There have been groups and surveys at the diocesan level, and all the results of the diocesan surveys were summarized in a national document that was sent to Rome.
In this normal process of the universal Church, of course, there are voices or pressure groups that want to include the whole issue of the ordination of women, the acceptance of homosexuals or other issues that are discussed elsewhere. But they raise it within the general process.
Few people are as familiar with the problem of sexual abuse as you, who since 2002 have been Secretary of the Episcopal Commission on this subject. What has your work involved?
- In fact, in 2002, a group of experts of the Episcopal Conference was created and I was appointed Secretary. It was a provisional appointment, but it lasted twenty years. When I was appointed bishop I thought that after all these years I would leave the subject, but no, I am still there. Now I am responsible in the Conference for the whole issue. The Commission is a group of experts, where there are jurists, psychologists, doctors, canonists... Its mission is to advise the Episcopal Conference on the measures to be taken, not to carry out investigations.
On the other hand, last year the three "columns" of the Church in Switzerland - the dioceses, the cantonal ecclesiastical corporations and the religious orders - made a specific research assignment to the Faculty of History of Law of the University of Zurich, asking for a historical examination of what happened in the field of sexual abuse in the Catholic ecclesiastical sphere from 1950 until now. We made all the archives of the Curiae available to them. That cabinet you see there, behind you, is the secret diocesan archive of our Curia; I opened it for them and left it here for them to read, study or photocopy as much as they wanted. That was only a pilot study. Now we have commissioned the same Faculty to carry out an in-depth study, which will take them three years to prepare.
One of the effects of the publication of the results of this first study, on September 12, 2023, has been the emergence of new complaints: almost two hundred new cases. We had already noticed on other occasions that every time the subject appeared in the media, new victims appeared; we also saw this after the Conference held a public event to ask for forgiveness.
Have you noticed any progress since then?
- It does seem to me that we have made progress. I would like to remind you that in this matter I have always stressed the need for "less talk and more action", because I believe that, as a Church, we have already talked enough about this subject. I do not want us to keep repeating "blah, blah, blah", but to take action, to take the victims seriously.
With the passage of time, there have been normative modifications, but also changes at the level of ecclesial culture. There has been a change in mentality, and we have created trust. However, we must continue to work to ensure that this change of mentality is internalized, becomes life and becomes everyone's conviction. That is a long road.
As I always say, we have to achieve a Church that is liberated from itself; that forgets itself; that is not preoccupied with itself. This is also the great daring at the personal level: a self liberated from the self; a self that understands that it is only found in the you and in the we. Man is communication, as Benedict XVI said. As long as in the Church we continue to concern ourselves with the good name, with credibility, with the institution, we have understood nothing. We have to be on the side of the victims and not on the side of the institution. This change of mentality is slowly gaining ground, but there is still a lot to do.
Then, at all levels of the Church, we must take all the necessary preventive measures to create a relationship of distance and closeness, of accompaniment, that is truly professional, in which the right measure is respect, support and freedom. All this is a great undertaking.
Since I have been dealing with sexual abuse issues, I have learned two things: that abuse with adults must also be considered, and that canon law should not be limited to considering crimes of abuse by clerics.
Joseph Bonnemain, Bishop of Chur
The Holy See commissioned you a few months ago to investigate allegations of mismanagement against six bishops, and of abuse against a territorial abbot (also a member of the Conference) and other priests. What did this commission entail?
- It was only a preliminary or preliminary investigation, it was not a matter of judging anything. According to canon 1717 of the Code, when there is a possible transgression or an improper way of approaching things, the data is first collected to see if there really is a crime, a mistake or whatever; and it was up to me.
The press asked whether it was appropriate for me, as a bishop, to investigate the actions of other bishops. The conference of cantonal public corporations proposed that I be assisted by lay experts in law, which I gladly accepted. I was assisted and accompanied by a cantonal judge from French-speaking Switzerland and a professor of criminal and procedural law from the University of Zurich, who did a marvelous job. The final report, of about 21 pages, was written by the three of us together, sentence by sentence, and I submitted it to the Dicastery for Bishops at the end of January 2024. Since then we have been waiting.
In Germany, some have spoken of "systemic causes" of abuse. In your experience, do such causes exist?
- I believe that we can rather speak of "elements" or "circumstances" that favor abuses. For example, one of them is not sufficiently examining and evaluating the suitability of future priests and other pastoral collaborators. At a time when we perceive the lack of priests, clerics and pastoral assistants, or also of vocations in religious orders, we could think: this person wants to enter, so let him enter. The selection would have to be much more serious. We should ask ourselves a hundred times if there is suitability, if there is psychological and affective maturity, if there is a healthy way of understanding sexuality, etc.
One of the measures we have taken as of September 2023 is to demand that all those who are going to begin a path of theological formation in order to later work pastorally, both seminarians and non-seminarian theology students, undergo a thorough psychological examination, in order to clarify if they really have the basic aptitudes for pastoral work based on dealing with people in terms of affectivity, psychic balance, mental health, etcetera. I believe that not taking this into account has been one of those circumstances.
On the other hand, I think it does not help that in the Church there is little distinction of functions, that is, that the person in charge of the diocese is at the same time the one who judges situations. This creates a difficult scenario. Much more effort should be made to diversify the functions of government in the Church. Related to that is also the question of why should clerics be involved in what is simply administration and management. All this is also being raised in the Synod of the universal Church.
Speaking of the Synod on Synodality, what do you expect from the final stage in October?
- I am reading the "Instrumentum laboris", and I see that the approach is that of a missionary synodal Church. What the Pope repeats about the Church going out: "uscire, uscire, uscire...", "going out", "going out", "going out", "going out", "going out". A Church that goes out is a Church that is not preoccupied with itself; that does not care at all about being "rough"; that is convinced that the only place to find God is in the most peripheral periphery, that knows that when we try to take God somewhere we find that He has arrived before us. And it is a matter of "contaminating" this virus, this attitude, to the whole Church. I repeat once again: we need a Church that is not preoccupied with itself, but in love with man, just as God has fallen in love with man.
I also think that one of the concrete results of the Synod will be to make much more use of subsidiarity. I am referring to not wanting to govern everything from the center, but to give concrete solutions for concrete situations, regional or national; to admit that things evolve at a different pace in the different regions of the world: that what is perhaps mature in Switzerland - for example, all that way of collaborating, discerning and deciding among all, something that for us is much more normal than in other countries - may not be so in other places. It would be useful to take into account the different idiosyncrasies. Basically, it is to take seriously the universal vocation of the baptized, and to eliminate all clericalism.
I think that one of the concrete results of the Synod will be to make much more use of subsidiarity: not to want to govern everything from the center, but to give concrete solutions for concrete situations, regional or national.
Joseph Bonnemain, Bishop of Chur
Instead of the classic Episcopal coat of arms, you use a simple symbol representing a cross. Why?
- My episcopal motto is: "Man is the way of the Church," taken from the first encyclical of St. John Paul II. It is important to go to the essential, and the essential is this: if God became man in Christ, it is because he is in love with man, with each man and with every man. This is what we must do: go out to meet man. Either we find Christ in every man, or we will never find him.
As for the episcopal coat of arms, my opinion is that we have to thank God that the figure of the "princely bishops" ("Fürstbischöfe"), as some of my predecessors the bishops of Chur were called until 1830, came to an end two centuries ago. My opinion is that a bishop should not have noble or aristocratic pretensions, and for my taste all such distinctive symbols should be done away with. In any case, I do not want to impose it on anyone.
Surely my appointment responds to the context of a complicated diocese with an enormous polarization. It was a question of finding a way to return to ecclesial normality.
Joseph Bonnemain, Bishop of Chur
What are your goals for the future, beyond 2026?
- When I am on the street and meet with people, I try to convey the confidence that God loves us, loves every man and every woman, and therefore will not leave us out of his hand. Sometimes, in the face of wars, climatic disasters, etc., someone asks me if we are not already in the end time of the Apocalypse and if the world is coming to an end. I always tell them that I don't think so. It seems to me rather it is just beginning, because there is a lot to do. There is a lot of work ahead of us until good can take hold, and God is on our side.
My aim is to transmit that confidence, that hope: the conviction of the possibilities of each person, to love each one, to know that in every man and woman there is a hidden treasure to be found. It is possible that it is a bit covered with dirt, but deep down there is what St. Josemaría used to say, and which has always moved me a lot: that all people are good, although some have to discover that they can be good. That is my program
