Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, November 13, 2023
Workshop on the occasion of the publication of the ROR Studies Series n.7, Autorità e mediazione: le relazioni asimmetriche nella Chiesa, edited by Ilaria Vigorelli, Jordi Pujol and Francisco Insa.
This volume is a follow-up to the Expert Meeting Autorità e mediazione: le relazioni asimmetriche nella Chiesa (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, February 17-18, 2023.
The workshop was organized in collaboration with the Faculty of Communication of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and the University’s Centre for Priestly Formation, as was the case for the Expert meeting. It counted on the interventions of Msgr. Andrea Ripa, Secretary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the theologian Gill Goulding (University of Toronto), the sociologist Cecilia Costa (Università degli studi Roma Tre), and Jordi Pujol (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross), professor of Ethics and Communication Law.
Although it is difficult to measure the expropriation of a person’s freedom and the law must look at factual consequences, there are some concrete elements (or “alarm signs”) that may indicate the existence of abuses of conscience, easier to identify in the context of community life than with individual people. In his address, Msgr. Ripa referred four of them: i) a leader (in a broad sense: someone who exercises a form of control) who goes beyond the boundary between the internal forum and the external forum; ii) the creation of a closed world around the person (in practice, having contact with people in the community only); iii) a cult of the leader that leads to a blind submission (like the one that can also occur in a couple relationship, not something too extraordinary); iv) the maxim that “he who runs does not think”: keeping the person in a state of permanent occupation, which “removes the person from herself”.
At the end of the workshop, some of the questions highlighted the limits of legal procedures with respect to the assistance and support necessary for victims of abuse who choose to take legal action. Can the trial be thought of today as a “place of civilization”? Abuse generates an identity deficiency, and it is unlikely that the process can restore its characteristics. We know that by its nature it is the place of cross-examination between accusation and defense, an experience that is often too onerous to be experienced by devastated identities.
The law can satisfy the thirst for justice but how can the victims be relieved of the enormous human burden they take on by initiating the process? The Church is called to take on a role that is part of a reparative and accompanying action, alongside and parallel to the procedural debate. The discussion table is open for the ROR: we are all called to formulate new and concrete accompanying hypotheses.
The second speaker, Sr. Gill Goulding, started her presentation with a reference to the ongoing synodal process, which she knows very well from her work as a member of the Theological Commission of the Synod 2021-2024. She shared that it had been a pleasure to be part of the working group that resulted in this book, particularly because the collaboration experienced, in an environment of collegiality and fraternity, is a good testimony to the ecclesiastical synodality requested of theologians by Pope Francis.
Then, facing an issue that is at the heart of the ongoing synodal process – how can theology help prevent abusive asymmetrical relationships within the scope of ecclesiastical authority –, she briefly presented some considerations that are developed in more detail within her contribution to the volume. Her suggestions focus on theological inputs to training for the exercise of non-abusive relationships and the exercise of authority. Goulding explains that when the subject realizes that the origin of his being is the love of God, from the depths of this appreciation arises a disposition in which there is no room for the abusive exercise of asymmetric relationships. Also essential is the consideration of Trinitarian relationships as the origin of all created reality and the perception of Christ as the supreme example of the exercise of authentic spiritual authority understood as service. Finally, Goulding underlines how the lessons learned from the synod process help training along these lines.
As in the Expert meeting, which she called a truly interdisciplinary seminar, Cecilia Costa brought the vision of sociology. Starting from the idea of asymmetric relationships, she stressed that the social space is a relational structure, and there are no symmetrical relationships: each relationship has a hierarchical structure. Furthermore, the current cultural fabric is very complex, and more with the interdependence (functional and dysfunctional) of all elements. Currently the configuration of identity is fluid, but without configured identity there is always a lack of the ethics of responsibility, as we notice when we (as a society) delegate so many aspects to technology, but do not take care of moral conscience.
Jordi Pujol’s intervention focused on three reasons for making Church abuses visible. On the one hand, society has the right to know (in fact, the faithful are also citizens). Without transparency, suspicions increase; this does not mean disclosing everything, due to the right to reserve certain aspects. Also, we must consider that the Church, in its dimension as a visible (human, institutional) society, is fallible. And lastly, the Church must live by the truth, it must not deceive. This involves contextual listening, informing, collaborating with other institutions. Visibility increases credibility and trust while embracing vulnerability.
