Examining Vulnerance Among Women Religious in Latin America Through the Lens of Clerical Sexual Abuse: The Manuel Pascual Case in Argentina

Abstract

This article examines clerical sexual abuse of women religious through the lens of “vulnerance”, a critical theological and ethical framework. This perspective shifts the focus from individual fragilty to structurally engineered susceptibility. By analyzing the high-profile case of Manuel Pascual in Argentina, this research demonstrates how vulnerability is not an inherent trait of nuns, as implied by Canon Law’s “vulnerable adult” category. Instead, it is systematically manufactured through gendered hierarchies, clericalist ideologies, and “sacerdotal kits” of coercive control. In the Latin American context, this vulnerance is sustained by testimonial and hermeneutical injustice. Victims face immense hurdles in being heard due to profound credibility asymmetry while a moralistic monopoly on language frames violence as “sin” or “temptation”. These two components of epistemic injustice coalesce to sustain a socio-ecclesial culture of impunity and lack of restorative mechanisms forcing many survivors into silence as a survival strategy. Ultimately, addressing this abuse requires a radical dismantling of the patriarchal structures and “vulnerant” ecclesiologies that sacrifice women’s dignity to protect the institution. Reframing women religious as autonomous subjects of rights is essential to bridge the “interpretive void” facilitating exploitation.