"A space of encounter, reparation, testimony and prayer, which wants to respond to what the victims are telling us", is how Cardinal José Cobo, Archbishop of Madrid, defined the event that he will hold, at the beginning of next year, with people who have suffered sexual abuse in Church environments.
An act with which the Church that walks in Madrid wants, in addition to recognizing the mistakes made, to express "that we want to continue accompanying the victims, putting them at the center of everything".
Service-based authority
The Cardinal made this announcement in the framework of the I Jordan International Congress on the abuse of power in the Church organized by the Society of Jesus in Spain, which for two days brought together dozens of people in Madrid to discuss the theological structural causes of abuse and its possible ways of reduction from this theological approach in dialogue with other disciplines.
In this regard, the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid stressed that in spiritual accompaniment and in the Church "authority is based on 'service and compassion, never on dominion, exclusivity and taking away the freedom of personal conscience" and called for the internal renewal of the whole Church and also pointed out the need to "continue investigating and deepening the structural and personal factors that facilitate abuse and better help the recovery and social reintegration of offenders".
The Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid wanted to emphasize the centrality of the victims in the whole process of reparation. Before them, the Church "the clamor of the victims who are in a Church that one day did not know how to protect them, but that "has the very serious responsibility to contribute to their healing. They are part of our flock, even if they do not want to know anything about it".
This meeting follows in the wake of other similar ones that have been held, so far, only in ecclesial settings. A few months ago, the Diocese of Bilbao organized a prayer and reconciliation meeting with victims of sexual abuse in Church environments. These acts join the path of prevention, reception and reparation in which the Catholic Church is engaged throughout the world.
