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



679_2.2 - « IL FAUT UTILISER LES FORCES COMME ELLES SE PRÉSENTENT POUR LE RÈGNE DE DIEU »: MANAGING COMPLAINTS AND REGULATING CRISES WITHIN THE MONASTIC FRATERNITIES OF JERUSALEM (1970S-2000S)

AUTHORS:
Dolbeau S. (École française de Rome ~ Roma ~ Italy)
Text:
The Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem are a new ecclesial movement founded in Paris in 1975 around the former Sorbonne chaplain, Father Pierre-Marie Delfieux (1934-2013). Since 2019, following the publication of a memoir by a former sister, the community has faced a significant wave of public allegations concerning abuses of power committed within its ranks. This paper examines the handling of complaints and crises relating to such abuses of power, which have punctuated the history of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem since their foundation. It seeks to analyse the modes of regulation at work both within the community itself and within the hierarchy of the Diocese of Paris, as well as the communal, ecclesiastical, and social mechanisms that contributed to the reproduction of silence surrounding these abuses.