Abuses of Power and Conscience in the Church: A Reading from Johan Galtung’s Structural and Cultural Violence: Abusos de poder y conciencia en la Iglesia: una lectura desde la violencia estructural y cultural de Johan Galtung

This article proposes an interdisciplinary understanding of abuses of power and conscience in the Church, linking them to forms of structural and cultural violence according to Johan Galtung’s Conflict Theory and Theory of Violence. Using the grounded theory method, variables are articulated that allow interpreting these abuses as expressions of unequal and culturally legitimized ecclesial dynamics. The emerging theory helps to clarify the causes of these practices and provides a basis for designing effective preventive policies.