01/07/2026 09:00 - 17:10

HALL: Pola - A210

Contact: Alvarez C.

Chair: Mostaccio S.

Since 2018, understanding sexual and power abuse in the Church has increasingly recognized its systemic character (CIASE, 2019). Abuse is no longer seen as isolated, but as the result of complex, interrelated factors within specific cultural, geographical, ecclesial, political, and economic contexts. This requires critically examining theological, spiritual, institutional, and juridical structures that have historically produced and legitimized power asymmetries, normalizing domination and violence—particularly gendered, ethnic, and class-based—by clergy, religious, and lay actors.


This open panel seeks to bring together research from diverse disciplines and cultural contexts. Given the scale of the phenomenon, abuse must be studied through an interdisciplinary, comparative, and global lens, as it constitutes probably one of the most serious institutional crises faced by the Catholic Church since the Reformation. Historical research, in dialogue with theology, sociology, anthropology, canon law, and psychology, is crucial for addressing current questions and developing critical discernment to untangle multiple dimensions of this crisis. Such dialogue may also contribute to new analytical frameworks, narratives, and institutional dispositifs aimed at safeguarding practices, recognizing and accompanying survivors, and promoting healing in the ecclesial body.


Thematic Axes:


History of abuse in ecclesial contexts: archives, cases, narratives.


Theologies, spiritualities, and the production of power asymmetries.


Contributions from sociology, anthropology, and psychology.


Challenges of canon law: normativity, governance, and juridical practices.