“My mouth is dry, my eyes will not close with sleep, my ears ring, my mind is pregnant with unrest . . . My heart beats on while pain abounds . . . Oh God, my God, Where are you now?” These words of lament are those of Karen, a survivor of both sexual abuse perpetrated by her father in her childhood and also a rape perpetrated by a man in her young adulthood.[1] Karen is not alone. When we began the research for this article in 2017, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) was reporting that 1 in 3 women in the United States experience sexual violence involving some form of physical contact during their lifetimes. When we updated data in the process of finalizing the article for publication, we discovered that today, in 2022, the CDC is reporting that this statistic is now more than 1 in 2.[2] This percentage of women is higher than the percentage of male and female adults in the U.S. who report having had COVID-19, and yet there has be no comparable action appropriate to a national emergency.[3] Female survivors in the U.S. number in the tens of millions, but their voices are seldom heard in the liturgical and public life of the Catholic Church. In 2017, we were privileged to hear the testimonies of some young Catholic women survivors who spoke confidentially at a consultation on ecclesial responses to sexual violence sponsored by the Division for Mission of Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. We were inspired by their faith and courage, and our article calls for the establishment of nationwide opportunities for ecclesial listening to women who are survivors of sexual abuse and violence in all of its forms.

This listening will bear multiple fruits. First, it will foster greater ecclesial communion. The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium reminds us that the Holy Spirit makes of the baptized one body of Christ such that “if one member suffers in any way all the members suffer along with that member.”[4] How can we suffer along with these members if we do not know what it is like to be a young woman in a media culture suffused with images, language, and narratives that treat women as objects to be sexually used and then cast away? If we do not know what it is like to grow up in a house that is not a true home but a place of sexual abuse? If we do not know what it is like to courageously report that one has been raped by a classmate only to receive shame or blame in response? If we are not aware of the manifold physical, psychological, social, and spiritual harms that are the consequence of sexual violation?

Another fruit of listening is ecclesial action. As the ecclesial body of Christ, the church has both a graced capacity through the power of the Holy Spirit and a moral responsibility to act in response to the body’s violation. We are confident that listening to the voices of female survivors will generate constructive recommendations for actions that the Church can take to contribute to the prevention of sexual violence, intervention in cases of ongoing abuse, and the pastoral care and inclusion of girls and women who are survivors. Our article makes a theological case for these actions and includes examples of initiatives already underway. We invite you to read it and then to share your reflections and ideas!

Read the full article “The Violated Body of Christ and the Voices of Young Catholic Women: A Call to Ecclesial Action” published in Horizons Volume 49, Issue 2, with free access until 12th March.

[1] Karen’s account is included in James N. Poling, The Abuse of Power: A Theological Problem (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1991),39–40

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/fastfact.html.

[3] Citing data from the Household Pulse Survey, the CDC reports that more than 40% of adults in the United States report having had COVID-19: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2022/20220622.htm

[4] Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) §7, in Norman P. Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols. (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1990), 2:852–54, with reference to 1 Cor 12:26.