Silent Spaces of Faith

GC140, Modesto A. Maidique Campus, Florida International University

Unrevealed spaces of emotions and abstract matters of belief and faith are forces that are beyond the familiar terrain of academia. However, these representations not only forge the weight of our meaningful relations to those in positions of authority, but also draw attention to the ethical possibilities held in the hands of the few. In academic settings, most research on topics of sex abuse and trauma comes from the department of psychology. The purpose of this paper is to discover these “secret” spaces from the perspective of space, power, and representation, and to become attentive to spatial forces folded into the fabric of the Catholic orthodoxy. This presentation investigates links between the “Silent Spaces of Faith” (within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church where these spaces transform the shape of “moral truths”, “sin”, and “penance”) and the French Marxist philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre’s spatial trialectics. The dynamic oscillation between Lefebvre’s three spatial concepts: from the abstract, crude, natural space or “absolute space” to the more complex spatialties whose significance is socially produced or “social space” are worthy to use in order to deconstruct what happens when “confined” groups of men are given absolute spaces that fall “under the thrall of divine order” (Lefebvre 235).