VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via Portland Press Herald
February 8, 2019
The statement by the sisters comes after Pope Francis admitted the problem of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns.
By Nicole Winfield
The largest association of religious sisters in the United States called Thursday for an overhaul of the male-led leadership structure of the Catholic Church, after Pope Francis publicly acknowledged the problem of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious also appealed in a statement for reporting guidelines to be established so abused nuns “are met with compassion and are offered safety.”
The conference’s statement followed Francis’ acknowledgement this week that clergy abuse of nuns was a problem. The pope said the Vatican was working on it but that more needed to be done.
His comments, given in response to a reporter’s question during an in-flight news conference, were the first public acknowledgement by a pope of a long-simmering scandal that is erupting at the same time that the Catholic hierarchy is under siege for its decades-long cover-up of the sexual abuse of minors.
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