ANGULO ORDORIKA, IANIRE
No
Open Theol.
Article
Científica
0
2
23/01/2026
001815527800001
This article analyses the role of narrative in the configuration of cultures of abuse within Catholic ecclesial communities. Drawing on Johan Galtung's theoretical framework of cultural violence, it examines how identity-forming discourses may legitimise dynamics of power, conscience, and sexual abuse. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of the constitutions of seven communities founded in the 1980s and 1990s, whose founders or internal dynamics have been the subject of allegations of abusive behaviour. The analysis shows that institutional narrative tends to build spiritual reference figures - founders, saints, and superiors - as beyond question and closely associated with the divine will. This representation fosters the identification between spiritual authority and governing power, the confusion between the internal and external forum, and the inhibition of critical mechanisms within the group. In this way, it is illustrated how such narratives contribute to the generation and maintenance of abusive cultures.
abuse in the Church; culture of abuse; founder; submission; obedience; spiritual abuse