“We Ask for Forgiveness”: Reflection on the Abuse Crisis in the Church in Press Releases

Juan Narbona

doi:10.18290/rns2023.0039

Published : 2023-11-22

Vol. 52 No. 3 (2024)

“We Ask for Forgiveness”: Reflection on the Abuse Crisis in the Church in Press Releases

Juan Narbona

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8563-0655

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rns2023.0039

Abstract

The sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church has been a global phenomenon. As with any crisis, it has also revealed a contradiction between what the Church should be and what, at times, it has been. We can consider crises as a painful and traumatic experience, but one that can serve to rediscover the importance and centrality of the values that have been betrayed. In many dioceses, religious congregations and episcopal conferences, the Church has had to communicate to public opinion the existence of these cases, express its sorrow – especially to the victims and their families – and report on the handling of these cases through press releases. By means of a comparative analysis of various press releases issued as a result of these painful cases, we wish to identify the values that dioceses, episcopal conferences and other realities wish to recover, the feelings expressed and other possible patterns that allow us to identify the reflection carried out internally in each case.

Keywords:

Sexual abuses, press releases, trust, institutional communication

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