'One of the Greatest Predators of the Age'
Fr. Henri Bonvin accused of abusing children and adults over the course of 50 years.
A Swiss priest is being called "one of the greatest predators of the age."
According to Swiss Catholic media, and also reported in French media, in January 2024, Vicario Consulting conducted an independent audit on handling of sex abuse in the diocese of Sion in Switzerland. It resulted in multiple allegations of abuse against longtime priest Fr. Henri Bonvin, who served a local parish in the city of Fully for nearly 50 years, and was a close friend to SSPX founder Abp. Marcel Lefebvre.
At least a dozen sources, including victims, family of victims and eyewitnesses, confirm extensive abuse of both adults and children, stretching from 1930 to 1978. Victims call Bonvin "a thug," a "twisted individual before whom people genuflected," and "one of the greatest predators of the age."
According to Valais newspaper Le Nouvelliste, “for nearly half a century, until the end of the 1970s, the man sexually abused adults and children while using his authority and position to rule over the social, political, spiritual, associative, educational, and even sexual and intimate lives of parishioners.”
Father Pierre-Yves Maillard, vicar general of the diocese of Sion, commented, “Until now, it was difficult to obtain precise information, and we did not think there were so many people involved. As everyone knows, our archives are extremely incomplete. We thank all those who dare to come forward. We believe them, we ask their forgiveness, we assure them of our compassion, and we want to do everything possible to ensure that such situations never happen again."
In that vein, the diocese held a march on Dec. 14, 2025 in Fully, in support of the victims, concluding with a Mass officiated by Bp. Jean-Marie Lovey in the parish church.
“This march is intended to express recognition of the wrongs committed and the suffering of all victims of abuse, with a request for forgiveness in a spirit of sincere repentance,” stated the diocese's website. “This event also aims to create a space for people to speak freely and find peace,” the statement added.
CLOSE ALLY OF ABP. LEFEBVRE
Father Bonvin was instrumental in establishing SSPX headquarters in Écône, Switzerland.
Bonvin met Lefebvre while both were students at the French seminary in Rome. When Bonvin became parish priest in Fully, he acted as intermediary with Lefebvre to purchase the Écône estate, where Lefebvre built the SSPX seminary and established his headquarters.
The biography of Lefebvre, written by Abp. Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, provides details: "A year passes and there was Archbishop Levebvre in Valais, as if by chance; for God, though, nothing happens by chance! The Archbishop preached the First Holy Communion retreat in Fully, at the parish of his friend from Santa Chiara, Father Henri Bonvin.
'By the way, Monseigneur, are you looking for a house for future priests? I might have what you need. . . .'
The next day, during morning Mass, while distributing Communion, the curate, ciborium in hand, whispered to his parishioner Roger Lovey [an attorney]: 'Roger, come see me in the sacristy!'
And there he said, 'I have Archbishop Lefebvre visiting, who is looking for a house for future priests. Would Ecône be available?'"
Lefebvre himself confirmed the friendship, in notes on the founding of Écone: "Through the parish priest of Fully, Henri Bonvin, an old friend of the French Seminary, I met Mr. Lovey in March 1969."
Bonvin passed away in 1983.
FULLY PREDATOR FR. FRÉDÉRIC ABBET
The allegations against Bonvin come several years after this reporter broke news in English-language press about SSPX priest Fr. Frédéric Abbet, another resident of Fully, convicted in court of sexually abusing numerous boys aged as young as six.
As a result of our reporting, Abbet — who had escaped justice for years — was apprehended and arrested in Switzerland in June 2020, and served out his sentence behind bars.
As we reported in our May 21 Spotlight: 'He's a Good Liar,' a Belgian court found Abbet guilty of child sex crimes in 2017, sentencing him to five years in prison. After requesting that he be allowed to serve out his sentence in his native Switzerland, however, Abbet ended up walking free, living in the town of Fully and even seen taking his nephews to a local swimming pool.
We contacted local authorities in Fully in May 2020 to ask why Abbet had never served his sentence, as required by Belgian law, and why a convicted pedophile was allowed to roam freely in their town.
Shortly after our inquiries, Abbet was apprehended and arrested.
Abbet's abuse could not have happened without the direct actions of Bp. Bernard Fellay, superior general of the SSPX for 24 years. In spite of a 10-year ban placed on Abbet forbidding him from being around children, after he was credibly accused of abusing a boy at camp, Fellay violated the ban within two months, assigning Abbet to live under the same roof as a boys' dorm in Brussels. There, he sexually assaulted multiple young victims, one as young as six years old.
According to a 2017 Brussels report, "The entire file has shown heavy dysfunction within the Society of St. Pius X."
Fellay's actions — along with the negligence and lack of oversight of priors Fr. Jürgen Wegner and later Fr. Benoît Wailliez, who withheld incriminating information and evidence against Abbet for six years — led the court to accuse the SSPX of "criminogenic" behavior, a French term denoting the enabling of pathologically criminal conduct.
It also led the prosecutor to thunder in court that "The SSPX should have been put on trial!" not just Abbet. Three European victims' rights groups issued a scathing joint statement excoriating the SSPX for its failure to help the victims' families, instead putting up roadblocks and obstructing justice while going out of its way to protect the Society.
