The Swiss Bishops' Conference has endorsed a national legal ban on so-called conversion measures aimed at people who identify as LGBT while insisting that legitimate pastoral care, counseling, and psychotherapy be expressly shielded from any prohibition.
In a statement issued May 26, the bishops said they reject conversion measures in all their forms. "Practices aimed at changing or suppressing sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression contradict the dignity of the person as the image of God and can cause considerable harm," the conference said (translated from German).
The bishops defined conversion measures as targeted influence intended to make a person change or suppress his or her sexual orientation or "gender identity," exercised through means such as pressure, blame, threats, isolation, devaluation, or religious fear.
Open-ended, respectful conversation and accompaniment, in which a person reflects on his or her situation and decides in freedom, does not fall under that definition, they said.
The conference reserved its sharpest language for religious settings. "In a religious context, such practices can become spiritual abuse when people are shamed, threatened, or manipulated in the name of God," the bishops said. Church pastoral care must never exert pressure or shame people, they added, and conversion measures are incompatible with Catholic pastoral care.
Pastoral care is legitimate, the bishops said, "when it preserves the dignity and freedom of the person, protects personal integrity, and exercises no undue influence."
The statement backs the aim of Motion 22.3889, now before the Swiss Parliament, which would prohibit and penalize the offering, facilitating, and advertising of conversion measures, the bishops said, "especially to protect minors and vulnerable persons."
They set three conditions for any law: a clear definition that captures targeted "conversion" practices; a precise delineation so that open-ended pastoral care, counseling, and professional psychotherapy are not criminalized; and ready access for those affected to support, counseling, and channels for filing complaints.
A long-running Swiss debate
A federal ban has been debated in Switzerland for years. The National Council, the larger chamber of Parliament, adopted Motion 22.3889 on Dec. 12, 2022, instructing the government to create a criminal provision against conversion practices.
The Federal Council recommended rejection, with then-Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter arguing that a ban at the federal level was not feasible and that some acts could already be punishable under existing law.
The motion remains in committee in the Council of States, which has awaited a federal report on the scope of the practices. Several cantons have already enacted their own bans.
The bishops were not alone in weighing in. The Protestant Church in Switzerland, the country's main Reformed body, issued its own statement the same day, also backing a legal ban.
The debate extends beyond Switzerland: In late April the European Parliament voted in favor of an EU-wide ban, and on May 13 the European Commission said it would recommend, without binding force, that member states outlaw such practices. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union.
Bishops say position is grounded in Catholic teaching
The bishops argued that they were grounding their position in the teaching of Pope Leo XIV, citing his inauguration homily of May 18, 2025, in which he said the Church is called "to offer God's love to everyone, in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person."
That pastoral emphasis sits within the wider framework of Catholic moral teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church holds that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered" and that "under no circumstances can they be approved" (No. 2357), while teaching that persons with homosexual inclinations are called to chastity and, through prayer and sacramental grace, "can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection" (No. 2359).
In its 1986 "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons," what was then the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — then led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Benedict XVI), wrote that pastors "should have the confidence that they are faithfully following the will of the Lord by encouraging the homosexual person to lead a chaste life and by affirming that person's God-given dignity and worth."
The same letter taught that those who experience the inclination should not be led to believe that "the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option," adding: "It is not."
A caution over religious freedom
The Swiss bishops' insistence on protecting pastoral care echoes a concern raised by their Austrian counterparts.
As CNA Deutsch, EWTN News' German-language news partner, has reported, the Institute for Marriage and the Family of the Austrian Bishops' Conference warned in 2023, when Austria considered a similar ban, that an overly broad prohibition could sweep in serious counseling for people experiencing conflicted sexuality and could restrict religious freedom where it touched pastoral accompaniment by confessors, pastoral workers, or laypeople.
