Court rules against Geneva's ban on religious processions
The Swiss Federal Court has ruled in favour of a parish, which has been banned from organising a procession on Corpus Christi by the canton of Geneva. The Court found in its judgment (2C_285/2023) that the ban violates freedom of religion and conscience.
A Catholic parish wanted to hold a procession through a neighbourhood in the Geneva municipality of Carouge on Corpus Christi. It submitted an application for a permit for this in 2022. However, the cantonal department refused to authorise the event.
According to Keystone-SDA news agency, the cantonal department claimed that the cultic neutrality of the public space would be affected through the procession. In the department's view, the procession not only represented homage to a deity, but also aimed to display this homage to others. The authorities therefore saw this as a serious infringement of the freedom and rights of others to the cultic neutrality of the public space.
The canton based its reasoning on Geneva's Law on the Secularity of the State (LLE). Article 6 of the LLE stipulates that religious manifestations, which amount to ritual acts, are to be held on private property. Only in exceptional circumstances, religious events may be authorised on public property.
The parish, which belongs to the Fraternity of St Peter, lodged an appeal against the ban. The competent court of appeal stated in its ruling of March 21, 2023, that banning the procession violated the principle of proportionality and consequently also the freedom of religion and conscience of the appellants. "It was a procession of limited scope that did not appear to jeopardise religious peace," the judges ruled.
The canton of Geneva appealed the judgement to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. On September 13, 2023, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court rejected the appeal by the canton, which means that the legal process is exhausted, making the decision final.
The judgement of the Swiss Federal Court, however, only serves as a precedent for those religious communities, which have entered into a relationship with the state by signing the declaration of commitment provided for in article 4 of the Regulation implementing the Geneva Law on the Secularity of the State (RLE).
Sources: katholisch.de, kath.ch, NZZ
Ruling by the Swiss Federal Court: 2C_285/2023
Image: symbolic image (Amudena Rutkowska, Wiki Commons)
Update - July 15, 2024:
The fraternity of St Pius (fsspx), which has not signed the declaration of commitment and is therefore in no official relationship with the local government has lost its case, also appealing a ban of a Corpus Christi procession, before the Federal Supreme Court.
Sources: kath.ch, fsspx.news