CHUR, Switzerland (LifeSiteNews) — Swiss Bishop Joseph Maria Bonnemain has decided not to punish two women who attempted to concelebrate at Catholic Mass and only issue a “formal reprimand” after the incident.
In August 2022, a video surfaced of a laywoman, parish leader Monika Schmid, saying a modified prayer of consecration and attempting to “concelebrate” a Mass in Effretikon, Switzerland, in direct violation of canon law.
Schmid was joined at the altar by another laywoman, two priests, and a deacon wearing a rainbow-colored stole.
READ: Two women attempt to concelebrate Mass at Catholic church in Switzerland
After the video had received international attention and criticism from faithful Catholics, the heterodox bishop of Chur, Joseph Maria Bonnemain, was forced to initiate a canonical preliminary investigation into the case.
The Diocese of Chur published the results of the investigation in a press release dated September 8, stating that the “careful investigation of the facts has shown that in this liturgical service, there were no serious liturgical violations, the judgment of which would be reserved to the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
“Therefore, no penal procedure is required in accordance with canon law.”
However, “important liturgical regulations were disregarded in this service, which are binding for the entire church,” the statement continued.
“Therefore, the bishop cannot avoid issuing a formal reprimand to the pastors involved in this matter. On August 15, 2023, Bishop Joseph Maria Bonnemain issued the appropriate warning to the five persons concerned during extensive personal discussions, in the expectation that these errors will not be repeated in the future,” it added.
Bonnemain “expressed his confidence in all the pastors involved and thanked them for their committed pastoral work for the good of the people.”
Canon 907 of the Church’s canon law expressly forbids anyone but the priest to utter the words of Consecration, and according to Canon 1379, “a person who, not being an ordained priest, attempts the liturgical celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice” incurs “a latae sententiae interdict or, if a cleric, also a latae sententiae suspension.”
Therefore, the reprimand against Schmid and the others involved in the liturgical abuse can hardly be viewed as a proper penalty.
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Bonnemain and the other bishops of the German-speaking part of Switzerland have been accused of hypocrisy and not having any reverence toward liturgical rubrics.
The left-wing organization “Equally Catholic” criticized Bonnemain and the other Swiss bishops for rebuking the women who “concelebrated” at the Mass, claiming that many other women had done the same in the past and that the Swiss bishops knew about those cases and tolerated them.
A source close to the matter told LifeSiteNews in January that he believes the Swiss bishops only criticized the liturgical abuse of Schmid et al. because they were ordered to do so by the Vatican.
During a Holy Mass on September 24, 2022, after the liturgical abuse of Monika Schmid had become public, Bonnemain conducted a liturgical ceremony very similar to priestly ordination for a group of theologians, including women, in his diocese.
The liturgical ceremony could easily have been mistaken for the sacrament of Holy Orders being conferred on the lay theologians since it entailed vows of consecration, a consecration prayer, and the laying on of hands.
Paradoxically, in a previously published letter likely sent out due to a Vatican order, the Swiss bishops explicitly warned against making the liturgy “an experimental field for personal projects.”
Bishop Bonnemain: a heterodox bishop who enjoys the trust of Pope Francis
Pope Francis appointed Bonnemain as Bishop of Chur in February 2021 as a “bridgebuilder.”
The Vatican has recently appointed the pro-LGBT Bonnemain to investigate five former and current Swiss bishops accused of covering up sexual abuse cases in their diocese, providing further evidence that Bonnemain enjoys Francis’ trust.
The Opus Dei bishop has shown a tendency to be very lenient with dissenters from Church teaching, evidenced by his meek “punishment” of Schmid and another recent case, where he failed to correct a laywoman working in his diocese for publicly promoting “legal pornography.”
Bonnemain is well-known for his heterodox positions. The Swiss prelate supports same-sex unions and knowingly gave Holy Communion to non-Catholics during his ordination ceremony.
He has been accused by priests in his diocese of implementing “LGBT ideology under the guise of preventing sexual assault” by issuing a pro-LGBT code of conduct that forbids priests to express “sweeping negative assessment” of homosexual acts and other “allegedly [sic] unbiblical behavior.”
Bonnemain furthermore abolished the office of exorcist in his diocese last year, saying that there are “normal solutions” for most problems and that he has “never been confronted with a person” that needed a major exorcism.