Pope first acknowledged cases of sexual abuse of priests against nuns

Pope Francis admitted that in the past few years several cases were recorded in the Catholic Church when priests of various ranks (including bishops) corrupted and raped nuns, solicited and even kept them in sexual slavery.

Фото: Depositphotos

He called it an “ongoing” problem of the Catholic Church, and this is the first statement in which a pope has acknowledged such things, writes “Currently,".

"Yes it's true. Not everyone does this, but there are indeed priests and bishops who have done it. We are working on it. Should we be doing more to combat this phenomenon? Yes. Is there political will to do this? Yes. We are already moving in this direction,” the Pope said.

Among the known cases of sexual violence against nuns are incidents in India, several countries in Latin America, France and Italy. Domestic publications of the Vatican, in particular Women Church World, mentioned in 2018, several cases in which nuns performed abortions or gave birth to children conceived by priests.

In November 2018, the organization representing Catholic nuns around the world also made a public statement about the “culture of silence and secrecy” that surrounds sexual abuse of nuns and encouraged women to report such cases. Former nun Marie Dispenza at the same time launched the hashtag #nunstoo on Twitter, similar to #meetoo, in an attempt to draw attention to the problem of sexual abuse in Catholic orders.

Pope Francis noted that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, also took a tough stance on this issue and deprived the position and rank of priests involved in sexual harassment. He recalled that a scandalous case was revealed in the monastic order of Saint Jean in France near Lyon, where the Dominican philosopher and priest Marie-Dominique Philip kept the nuns in sexual slavery. Marie-Dominic Philip died in 2006, but information about what happened in his congregation appeared only in 2013-2016, when several nuns accused the founder of the order. By order of Benedict XVI, the order was eventually dissolved.

Several incidents of sexual violence against nuns occurred in Africa, where priests often had sexual relations with nuns during the HIV / AIDS epidemic, seeing in such connections a way to protect themselves from the disease. Maura O'Donoghue, who was previously a nun, described the incident in Malawi, where, near 30, nuns became pregnant as a result of contacts with priests. However, when they reported the incident to the archbishop, they were all transferred to other orders.

Also last year, a nun in India accused the bishop of raping her during the 2014-2016 period. She filed a complaint with the police, and the priest was arrested: his trial should begin in a few months. But the decision of the nun to give the incident publicly divided the Catholic Church: many priests approved that the priest was released on bail, and not sent to prison.

Another incident occurred in Chile: The Vatican is currently investigating allegations that priests in one of the orders were soliciting nuns. The women who filed the charges are now transferred to other orders.

It is also known that one of the high-ranking officers in the Vatican, Rev. Hermann Geisler, resigned last month. This happened after a former nun accused him of sexual harassment during confession. However, the priest himself denied the charges.

In recent years, the Catholic Church has experienced several scandals related to the harassment of priests against children. Pope Francis has repeatedly confirmed the intention to open such cases and not hush up them.

In particular, the loud scandal associated with the corruption of children by priests, occurred in the United States. The investigation found that more than 300 Catholic priests working in the state of Pennsylvania for the past 70 years, corrupted more than a thousand children, and their actions were covered by the church elite.

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