The story begins with an incident in a monastery in 2021 and is about a Catholic priest in Western Sweden, who previously had an important role in the church’s school activities.
The priest was reassigned and banned from working with children and youth because of a relationship with a man who was a teenager when it began in 2007.
According to documents, the relationship was marked by the priest’s boundless commitment, and the accuser alleges that the priest took advantage of him emotionally, spiritually and psychologically through manipulation.
Banned from working with children
Shortly after their last meeting at the monastery in 2021, restrictions on the priest’s duties begin and he is forbidden to work with children and young people.
– The guidelines that have been given have not been respected and this has caused the cup to overflow, says Björn Håkonsson, child protection representative in the Catholic Church, who wants to be clear that the accusations are not about sexual abuse.
In November this year, the priest was suspended by Cardinal Anders Arborelius, the head of the Catholic Church in Sweden, who believes that the man did not follow the ban. The suspension is a so-called canonical suspension.
The priest sees it as a dismissal and has now sued the Catholic Church in the Stockholm district court in an attempt to invalidate the suspension.
Took help from US attorney
Before the lawsuit was filed, the man appealed the suspension with the help of a canon law lawyer in South Dakota, USA.
The lawyer writes to Cardinal Anders Arborelius that the man received no warning before the punishment was handed out, which is required according to church law.
Why do you think the priest turned to a lawyer in the US?
– Those who have knowledge of canon law in Sweden work at the Stockholm Catholic Diocese, that is where the experts are and it is clear that they are a party to the case. If you want to get help from an outsider who knows this, then you probably have to turn abroad, says associate professor Tobias Hägerland.
The priest writes in an SMS to SVT Nyheter Väst that he appealed the cardinal’s decision to the Dicastery for Clergy in Rome, which is directly subordinate to the Pope.
“I am incapable of manipulation. I have not committed any abuse,” he writes.