BOOK Review

Seeking Wholeness: Women Dealing with Abuse of Power in the Catholic Church Marie Evans Bouclin, Liturgical Press, 2006. Reviewed by Anne Southwood, VOTF Boston, MA

[Bouclin was a personal assistant to her bishop when he read press coverage of her participation in workshops for churchwomen; she was demoted and later resigned. This book grew out of the women she met in the workshops and the many who contacted her following her departure from Church employment.]

The author has a background in translation of theology and ethics for episcopal synods in Ontario, Canada. The book is based on in-depth interviews with abuse survivors, one-third of whom are nuns and lay religious.

Bouclin has produced a strong-minded book on the subject of victimization of women within the Church structure. Her sources include theologians Anne Carr, Anne Wilson Schaef, Elizabeth Johnson, Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza and Rosemary Radford Ruether. Schussler recommends the book as “important to anyone concerned with violence against women in religion” and calls it a “must” for Catholic women, bishops, and counselors.

Bouclin confronts an unquantified “taboo” subject. Her introduction quotes Fr. Thomas Doyle in reaction to the John Jay Report: “There are far more age-appropriate victims, most of whom are women.” The Bouclin identifies the structures that set up a systemic abuse of power ranging from expected work load to sexual abuse.The outcome is clear for Bouclin; she says, “priestly power itself becomes the sacred reality.”

Her own demotion after participating in a workshop on women in the Church wedged Bouclin into supporting the healing of others, as victims began to relate their own stories in sympathy. Abuse counselors and women with theological training worked to begin a support group attractive to hesitant victims. “Prepared to search for answers with them rather than provide ready made ones,” it aimed at personal metanoia [Gk., “change of heart”] allowing new understanding of discipleship.

Bouclin states that the most damaged women are victims of sexual abuse by their spiritual advisor. She admits that participants in a constructed support group can have limited success, some remaining dysfunctional for years. Why? Bouclin quotes Schaef on the strong phenomenon of co-dependence within the Church structure, calling it an abnormal addictive disease process. Becoming whole again involves stages of grief. A few disturbing “typical” case studies distilled from the raw data for the purposes of the book make the difficulty of the healing process evident.

A female support group, called necessary to healing, makes clear the quintessential struggle between faith and tackling the Church systemic flaws. Bouclin faults our training in the redemptive value of suffering as one cause of willingness to assume guilt and the sin of the priest. Survivors must recognize spiritual abuse and take responsibility for their growth to regain self image. Bouclin notes that forgiveness and reconciliation can be problematic. She quotes a survivor of clergy sexual abuse: “It is the weak who are asked to forgive the unrepentant strong. Forgiveness is between equals.” Since most cases never get to court, an admission of guilt or reconciliation is impossible.

The Holy Spirit working in the daily lives of women–gaining personal access to the sacred–is a source of healing for Bouclin. Meditation training is proposed; speaking truth to power is another. These can be catalysts for metanoia. Bouclin contends that the spiritual power of Church plays on a clergy-laity divide which, effectively, absolves the laity from responsibility for their faith. Catholic laity remain in a state of spiritual infancy. Devout and vulnerable women are therefore easily susceptible to being misled and abused. Opening Church structures to greater inclusivity is another Bouclin remedy; she states that the whole idea of priesthood instituted for celebrating the Eucharistic sacrifice at Mass needs to be revisited in light of new theologies.

Meanwhile, many survivors have only each other, some existing during recovery in a borderland calling themselves Catholics but in exile from the institutional Church. Sadly, at publication time, Bouclin knew of no other effort in any diocese to support their recovery. This makes one question if there is any such effort in our own major dioceses. This is a necessary, if disturbing book, which might generate such an effort.



In the Vineyard
September 7, 2006
Volume 5, Issue 15 Printer Friendly Version (PDF)


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Diocese/State Watch

Book Review

VOTF National News Update


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