LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail
February 6, 2019
By Sara Malm
The editor of the Vatican’s women’s magazine has accused the Catholic Church of ignoring complaints of rape and sexual abuse made against priests by nuns.
Lucetta Scaraffia is now calling for a commission to be set up by the Vatican to investigate historical and contemporary allegations.
This came after Pope Francis’s public admission that priests have used nuns as ‘sexual slaves’ – and may still be doing so.
‘It is the first time that the pope, but also the church as an institution, has publicly admitted this abuse is taking place, and that’s hugely important,’ Ms Scaraffia, editor of ‘Women Church World’, told AFP.
‘Many complaints have been filed with the Vatican and have not been followed up.
‘I very much hope that a commission will be set up to investigate, and that nuns expert in the issue will be called to take part,’ she told AFP.
‘They could move quickly with trials, and above all raise awareness because silence is what allows rapists to continue to rape,’ she added.
The pontiff on Tuesday said Catholic priests and bishops had been sexually abusing nuns, and that his predecessor Benedict XVI had dissolved a religious order of women because of ‘sexual slavery on the part of priests and the founder’.
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