Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland · 2025

Switzerland: school chaplain and cantonal religious-education head convicted over abuse on prayer trips

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

school chaplain, cantonal head of Catholic religious instruction, youth chaplain

Organization

Collegio Papio, Ascona

Spiritual nexus

Three layers of religious authority converged on the same youths — school chaplaincy, cantonal control of their religious education, and youth pastoral care — and the offences occurred on spiritual excursions he alone organised and controlled.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2025-08-14 · conviction and sentence (appeal status unconfirmed)

    Lugano court, Ticino, Switzerland. A 56-year-old priest — chaplain of the Collegio Papio in Ascona, the most senior official for Catholic religious instruction in Canton Ticino, and a youth chaplain — was convicted of multiple counts of sexual coercion and sexual acts with minors against nine young people (four minors) between 2015 and 2023, committed largely during reflection and prayer trips he organised. He received a suspended 18-month term and a lifetime ban on activity involving minors.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • reflection and prayer trips he organised and led
  • layered institutional and spiritual authority over the youths

Primary record

Sources

national public broadcaster verdict and sentencing report 'Eineinhalbjährige bedingte Freiheitsstrafe für Priester im Tessin', SRF, 14 Aug. 2025.

Switzerland's public broadcaster reporting the conviction, the counts, and the prayer-trip setting.

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