Churches seek stronger federal role after pastors’ service dispute

Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported that churches want to strengthen their role in federal politics after the government decided to subject pastors to military service without consulting them.

In June, the Federal Council decided that pastors would also be required to fulfil military service. It said in its reasoning that church pastoral care was “dispensable to society”. The churches had neither been consulted nor informed in advance. The Federal Council has since apologised.

The churches have accepted the apology. Rita Famos, president of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, said she believed the incident was a one-off mistake linked to the consultation process and did not indicate a fundamental crisis in relations with the federal authorities.

The Roman Catholic Church also sees no crisis, but considers the outcome unsatisfactory. “When a proposal concerns the role of clergy and pastoral care and the churches are not specifically involved, an important perspective is missing,” said Maurice Greder, communications officer for the Swiss Bishops’ Conference. “That should be handled better in future.”

Greder said the problem was that the churches had no traditional lobby in the federal capital. Unlike business associations, he said, they did not represent particular interests. Instead, they brought issues including human dignity, solidarity, the protection of vulnerable people, peace and the common good into political debate.

Famos said this values-based representation had once been easier. Contacts with the federal authorities were more direct in the past, she said, but churches now had to make greater efforts because such links were no longer taken for granted.

Religious policy is generally the responsibility of the cantons. However, more religion-related issues have reached the federal level in recent years, including debates over headscarves and church-related questions concerning international cooperation and migration, Famos said.

She also pointed to the growing number of parliamentary motions involving religious communities, while the federal administration has no dedicated office for them. The churches want to discuss with Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider whether a contact point should be established within a government department. The proposal is supported by the Christian churches, the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities and Muslim associations.

Greder said the consultation mistake should also serve as a wake-up call for the churches. They needed to act more proactively and monitor which issues entered the consultation process, he said, while also expecting to be consulted on such matters.

The practical impact of the new military service requirement for pastors is limited. So far, only nine men are affected. The dispute could nevertheless prompt broader changes in how Swiss churches engage with the federal government.