CHANGES IN THE THRESHOLDS OF THE TOLERABLE. FROM THE SILENCING TO THE PUBLICIZING OF ECCLESIASTICAL ABUSE IN CONTEMPORARY CHILE (2010-2020)

Abstract

This article analyzes the process clergy abuse publicizing in Chile, based on theories of public problems and public denunciation. This allows explaining the process by which, in Chile, there is a transition from silence, silencing, and denial of such abuses to narrative configurations where the complainants are recognized as victims/survivors and the responsibilities of different actors are problematized, mainly those of the Catholic Church and the State of Chile. For this purpose, two scandals that occurred in Chile in the last decade (the Karadima case, 2010-2011 and the Maristas case, 2017-2018) are analyzed based on interviews with key actors in these two cases (abuse victims and non-victims), in the press and in television programs. We conclude with the identification of three main narrative configurations of abuse in Chile from the development of these two scandals: abuse as a dyadic problem between victim/perpetrator, abuse as a process focused on the figure of the victim/survivors and abuse as a citizen problem.