The theme of the conference was “Analysing the hidden patterns of spiritual and sexual abuse among Catholic women religious” and was organised by the Faculty of Catholic Theology in Regensburg.
There were about 65 participants from all over the world, including Australia, California, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Poland, Zimbabwe, Hungary, Peru, Argentina, and our General Secretary from the Netherlands (with an office in Brussels).
There were psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, social workers, journalists, religious people and lay people, and a group of ‘survivors’.
Many forms of abuse were discussed, and it became clear that every situation is different, especially depending on the environment in which it takes place.
Gender-based violence in religious communities has been identified as a global problem by several public inquiries over the past twenty years, but has long been ignored. Recently, attention has been drawn to the experiences of female religious, revealing a significant degree of sexual and spiritual abuse, with religious figures as both victims and perpetrators. The conference addressed the hidden patterns of abuse by discussing the phenomenon of spiritual and sexual abuse of religious women from an academic perspective – a world first – and brought together scholars from different disciplines. The panels addressed themes such as sisters as victims and perpetrators, spiritual abuse and systemic factors.
The first panel examined the circumstances in which abuse of female religious can be discussed at all and began with a journalistic and activist approach to the subject, based on ‘the Rupnik case’. The second panel presented the results of two in-depth empirical studies in which female religious were asked about their experiences of sexual abuse within religious communities in Africa and Germany. The third panel discussed issues related to religious and theological traditions and gender aspects, with a particular focus on the subject of spiritual abuse. The fourth panel addressed vulnerability and vulnerabilities in communities from a systemic approach. One of the highlights of the conference was the World Café in the fifth panel, in which all continents were represented. Finally, the sixth panel addressed the hitherto neglected theme of colonialism in this context and then turned its attention to topics for future extensive research, which will hopefully take place in 2027.
It was very hot (unfortunately there was no air conditioning in the auditorium) and exhausting (there was also no microphone), but the conference was perfectly organised by Prof. Ute Leimgruber and Dr. Barbara Haslbeck, among others.
At the end, we said a fond farewell, knowing that this is not the end!
They spoke almost the same language: our Secretary General from the Netherlands and the participant from South Africa!