Panel: SEXUAL AND POWER ABUSE CRISIS IN THE CHURCH: A SYSTEMIC, INTERDISCIPLINARY, AND HISTORICAL APPROACH



679.5 - THE BLIND SIDE OF AN INSTITUTION. A PATHWAY TOWARD RESTORATION

AUTHORS:
Iula E. (PFTIM - San Luigi ~ Naples ~ Italy)
Text:
The lack of appropriate legislation (especially Canon Law) can be pointed just as one of the problems that made abuses possible in Catholic Church. According to generative ethics approach (IULA 2018), the core of any institution is the capability of creating and reforming human bonds. If we bring into consideration some of the Reports on sexual abuse, from John Jay Report (2004) to Rapport CIASE (2021), we can see that the common point of every crime is to treat a human being as an object, not as a pear subject worthy of respect and protection. The institutional side of the problem assumes its relevance when the secretness of those crimes is covered by feeble normativity and silent ethics. A sharper comprehension of the problem shows a double, controversial economy. First, we have an asymmetric economy of relationships, always unfavourable to people and favourable to perpetrators. This economy is situated in the moment of perpetration. Then, we have an economy of time, following the same line as the previous, but actual in the moment of reporting crimes to authority. This precision enlightens a double field of restoration: relational and institutional. For an environment hierarchically built, recommendations are not enough, but even the mere appeal to orders coming from above could be too much. Facing dynamics of power urges a double level intervention: in terms of trust and in terms of re-institutionalisation. Firstly, work of restoration should be ambitious and focus on humanization of human bonds. We find the Church in a strong need of simplicity and immediacy in relationships. Secondly, following the line given by the Gospel (especially Mk 11, 15-19), Church needs the courage of being purified by the evil that has grown through the years. It doesn't mean to allow the use of strength, but the destitution of abusers, and reinstitution of good shepherds.