The Church is becoming more and more aware of the fact that the sexual abuse are not the only ones that we must strive to prevent and repair, but we must also pay attention to abuses of power and conscience. So much so that it has typified them in the Code of Canon Law.
Briefly, abuse of power can be defined as the improper use of authority (for example, that of a priest, a teacher, a parent or a boss) to arbitrarily impose decisions that affect the external freedom of persons with whom the former maintain an asymmetrical relationship.
On the other hand, abuse of conscience consists of a manipulation that uses morality or faith to influence the internal will, generating guilt or fear. Although these abuses are different in nature, they often occur together, since the manipulation of conscience facilitates submission to power.
Factors that may facilitate abuse
Why are denunciations of this type of situation on the rise, and what elements facilitate their occurrence? We can distinguish four factors that facilitate abuses of power and conscience in the ecclesial sphere:
- Hierarchical structure: the authority of priests, bishops and superiors, together with a clerical spirit that idealizes their figure, makes it difficult to question their orders and advice.
- Institutional secrecy: fear of public scandal. Many institutions have attempted to resolve cases of abuse through internal processes in which victims are not well attended to and the lack of transparency prevents other members of the institution from learning from the mistakes made.
- Spiritual and doctrinal manipulation: through the distortion of concepts such as "obedience" or "sin", victims of spiritual and power abuse see their freedom coerced.
- Emotional and material dependence: in religious communities and other closed groups, the economic and social power of the group generates asymmetrical relationships that can lead to abuse. On the other hand, due to a natural sense of belonging that is created, the individual will can become repressed for fear of the consequences: social isolation, feeling of betrayal of the community, reprisals, economic inability to lead a life independent of the institution, etc.
When what looks like abuse is not really abuse
Despite all this, it is also true that there are cases in which, although there are those who think that an abuse of power or conscience has been committed, it has not really taken place. When we judge events of past times with today's mentality, many anachronisms are produced that lead us to censure everything with a sensitivity that is unfair to the capacity to act that people had in other times.
There are several areas that facilitate this situation:
- Asymmetrical relationships, which are inherent to society. In many institutions such as the family, the company or the school, there are authority relationships that, although uncomfortable or unwise, need not be considered abuse. A strict parent may seem abusive in the eyes of a rebellious child, just as an employee with low tolerance may think that every demand from his or her boss is abuse. The same can happen with the guidance given by a spiritual director, although at this point, delicacy and respect for personal freedom must always be a fundamental line of action. Trying to influence others is something perfectly naturalized in our society, and we live with examples such as advertising or "influencers".
- Differences in sensitivity and expectations can generate misunderstandings: In this area, for example, many classical customs in spiritual discipline can feel like oppression to those who have not understood their meaning or do not integrate them correctly into their life project.
- In any institution there may be people who commit occasional or even regular abuses of power or conscience, but this does not imply that these particular cases should be taken as the general rule.
- The acceptance and practice of correction in spiritual accompaniment: there are people who, in some contexts, encounter difficulties in the correct discernment of personal or spiritual situations and, at the same time, interpret any type of correction as manipulation. This can be due to real abuses that occurred in the past, to reinterpretations of the facts made a posteriori or to a lack of maturity to withstand the pressure of a demanding Christian life.
- Finally, the human mind naturally subjectively reinterprets the past to justify one's decisions (e.g., because of confirmation bias or self-interest). There are religious norms that are freely assumed but when they are no longer lived they are reinterpreted as oppressive or abusive.
A necessary reflection
Abuse of power and abuse of conscience take place within the Church and its various institutions. Many structures need to be reformed to improve transparency so that such cases do not occur so easily, but it is also necessary to discern between real abuses and baseless or exaggerated allegations, without in any case minimizing the legitimate suffering of individuals.
Moreover, the experience of the Church has led in recent decades to insist on the separation of spiritual direction from the sphere of institutional governance, urging religious institutions to ensure that the persons who provide spiritual accompaniment are not the same as those who exercise institutional governance over those same persons.
From the point of view of the faithful, it is essential to form souls in freedom, so that they may assume the norms of an institution with true interior freedom and be able to discern whether something is a legitimate demand or an abuse on the part of a superior. In this way, Catholics will know how to differentiate between responsible authority and illegitimate control, between good advice and manipulation.
