The Department of Catholic Theology has been conducting intensive research into “power and abuse" for years. The researchers examine power relations and their significance for sexualized violence in the context of the Roman Catholic Church from different perspectives:

Sabine Andresen conducts research on violence in childhood and adolescence and on coming to terms with sexual violence. From 2016 to 2021, she headed the Independent Commission for the Systematic Reappraisal of Child Abuse. She has been President of the German Child Protection Association since 2023 and is currently Vice President for Equal Opportunities, Career Development and Advancement, Diversity and Gender at Goethe-University Frankfurt.

Christof Mandry focuses on the aspect of agency as a fundamental dimension in the context of power and abuse as part of research into the perspectives of persons affected.

Ute Sacksofsky has a research focus on constitutional law, anti-discrimination law and legal gender research. She has worked intensively on questions of equality and non-discrimination, focusing on the legal handling of power asymmetries, also in relation to religious constitutional law. She is co-director of the Cornelia Goethe Center for Gender Studies and Vice President of the State Court of Hesse.






  • Andresen, Sabine: Knowledge about the “third parties" in Catholic context. Dynamics of power abuse and sexual violence towards children and adolescents
  • Mandry, Christof: Capacity to act: Vulnerability and re-empowerment in the biographies of those affected
  • Sacksofsky, Ute: Religious communities' right to self-determination and the prevention of power abuse
  • Schmidt, Thomas: Autonomy of law or ius divinum? Critique of natural law from a power-theoretical perspective
  • Middelbeck-Varwick, Anja: On the power of gender orders: Feminist critique in the context of Roman Catholic theological reforms since 2010
  • Wenzel, Knut: Church as symbolic order. A Lacanian and negative-dialectical view of the church in terms of power theology
  • Langer-Pitschmann, Annette: Power does not fall from the sky. The construction of clerical power by the community of believers
The department is also developing concepts from a practical theological perspective, with a view to the field of prevention in the context of teacher training and further education as well as in the area of practical advice reappraisal. In particular, two other researchers from other disciplines at Goethe University are also intensively involved in working on the topic:

Thomas Schmidt criticizes natural law from a power-theoretical perspective.

Anja Middelbeck-Varwick, from a perspective of gender studies and intercultural theory, examines power factors that promote sexualized violence and gender-specific.

Knut Wenzel analyzes the meaningfulness of theological language and its implications for ecclesiology from a power-critical perspective.

Annette Langner-Pitschmann reflects on the boundaries between theological and ideological speech. She has examined the peculiarities of religious judgment processes and the standards of reason of the procedures embedded in democratic societies, which are in tension with each other.

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Frankfurt Faculty of Catholic Theology
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60323 Frankfurt am Main  

Sabine Bremer
Ricarda Groh   

Phone: 069 / 798 - 33346 

Fax: 069 / 798 - 33354   

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