More religious orders will face closure as a result of sexual abuse

A community that can be called a "new community" was dissolved at the end of June.  It is not the first and it will not be the last.  It is said that nothing more could be done.  In my opinion, this is a catastrophe, a human and spiritual catastrophe.  People who have given themselves totally to Christ, body and soul, find themselves a few years or even decades later "torn from their vocation".  We will help them, we say.  But why not have helped them earlier?

The question that can be asked and that is always asked when faced with such decisions, is why have we allowed such a community to grow and, by the same token, so much suffering?  We didn't know, they say.  But yes, and I say it loud and clear, some people did know.  The successive bishops who were guarantors of the community knew, the bishops of the places where the community lived knew, the Nunciature knew and the French Bishops' Conference (CEF) knew.  Perhaps I am wrong in saying that they knew.  In any case, they were warned and for this particular community, for at least twenty years.  They regularly received very heavy and well-supported files, where everything that is said today was already said.

Naivety and impudence

More generally, what is this gap between 'being warned' and 'knowing'?  Knowledge calls for understanding, competence, the ability to hear, but perhaps, above all, a demand for truth.  On the part of those in charge, there is naivety and impudence, such as this bishop who said to me: "My role is to teach, yours is to take care of the victims.  But, more than anything, there is a lack of knowledge and an inability to recognise the phenomena of perversion and perversity, as well as their consequences.

Behind the red carpets that are rolled out for them, there are the smiles and happy words, the careful liturgy, the flamboyant prayers, the high officials do not know how to see the humiliations experienced, the mental and spiritual manipulations, the dietary disturbances, the overwork, the sexual abuse, the rape of body and soul, the imposed one-track thinking, the serious health problems, the psychiatric drugs, the hours of anguish in the dead of night and the self-mutilations that can go as far as suicide. The multiplicity of maltreatments leads to a psychological trauma identical to that experienced by the victims of an attack and the hold that these people undergo inevitably leads to psychological dissociations of all kinds and losses of identity.  So it is easy to say that those who denounce the system are fragile and therefore not credible!  Yes, they have become fragile but through lack of pastoral vigilance.

Deceptive fruits

The "people of God" do not help those in charge in this discernment because Christians are quite happy, and rightly so, to find places where they can recharge their batteries individually or as a family: "a holiday with God" is an all-inclusive formula!  "We judge the tree by its fruits, and the fruits are good," or so I am told.  Yes, all these communities have had the immense advantage of giving access to the notion of a holiness open to all, not just reserved for clerics and contemplatives. But the fruits can be deceptive, as witnessed by the frightening number of suffering people who have left these deviant communities or are still in them.  And if you dig a little deeper, if you listen with your heart, you can hear the groans of some and the lies of others.  But you have to be trained. The denial of reality is combined in Christian circles with hyper-spiritualisation, which is  a radiant mask for all abuses.

Ignorance of spiritual ways is cruel.  Can you imagine the tempter coming in shouting: "I am evil, I want to destroy you, beware of me"?  No, the tempter advances in a suit of light and uses seduction and cunning.

Several emergencies

There are several urgent needs today: that those who are in charge of ordinary or extraordinary canonical visits and of apostolic visits, that is to say, those who are in charge of monitoring and helping, be trained and really trained.  It is necessary to help these communities to accept the truth about their history, to denounce and condemn structural abusers, to separate them from their victims, to prevent them from doing more harm; to ensure that the statutes and rules of life are both theologically Catholic and respectful of each person, that the teaching given does not lead directly to abuse; but also to welcome and take care of those who have difficulties and denounce themselves; it is also necessary to assiduously seek a favourable outcome, a capacity to live in communities which, today, have in their midst people who have been totally destroyed by the previous abusive system, people who have been affected but are less damaged, people who have recently entered... Hence the absolute imperative to react very quickly and intelligently, from the first revelations of dysfunction.

Let us take advantage of this time of synodality to gather together all the vital forces; let each one not be satisfied with working in his or her own area, seeking to seize the currents of the moment. There is clearly a threshold to cross in order to integrate the consideration of the predation on innocence, particularly in its spiritual dimension, into the anthropology and practices of the Church. The stakes are high.  It is a question of human dignity and respect for the personal relationship with God.

Doctor Isabelle Chartier-Siben

Psychotherapist, victimologist and President of the Association "C'est-à-dire" which helps victims of abuse.

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