abuses in the religious life and the path to healing.

"...a priority has to be given to the voices of victims, to listening carefully to all that they have to say, no matter how difficult it may be to hear, and however great the "damage" that their story might seem to do to the image we may once have had of this or that person who, up until that point, may even have been considered a point of reference for the spiritual or religious life. Publishing this book is one way....to say to the victims of spiritual abuse or other aberrant behaviors that they have been heard and taken seriously. They have all too often had to endure long periods characterized by denial or rejection on the part of the very Church authorities in whom they had tried to confide." (de Lassus, 2020).

"...chapter 3 of the Rule of Saint Benedict, which recommends that, 'each time there is something important to decide,' that the abbot should call together the whole community, and himself set out the matter that is to be decided. Then he is to listen to each of the brothers, to try to see what the Spirit is saying, since the Spirit can speak through any one of them, even the youngest, provided that they speak with the necessary humility and obedience. Then the abbot himself decides, and all commit themselves to obey in an attitude of faith" (de Lassus, 2020).

"It matters little whether the decision is right or not; what matters is that the linchpin agrees with it... If people are made to live with this reality day in, day out -- having no other point of reference than the decrees that emerge from the linchpin, protected by the enclosure -- then their mindset becomes deformed; people don't know who they are anymore..." (de Lassus, 2020).

"People become incapable of expressing personal thought; they can no longer find the words. Should they try to express an opinion that does not conform to the official line, it won't be long before they are discreditedand roundly put in their place. Eventually, there will be a physical reaction in the form of sleepless nights, back pains, or other psychosomatic complaints. More serious still, there is a risk that these people may end up self-harming (doing violence or deliberately causing injury to themselves), neglecting personal hygeine, or seeking an escape in some crushing job, or escaping into coercive or recalcitrant behavior, perceived by them as the only way to have some sort of independent existence... it may begin with one person -- who will be dismissed -- then another, and another. At first, outside the community, it will be explained away as some kind of personal failure, a lack of a vocation to this community. But we have to hope that higher authorities (the bishop or superior of the congregation) will quickly take cognizance of these powerful reactions and begin to ask questions" (de Lassus, 2020).