IRELAND
Drogheda Independent
By ALISON COMYN
Wednesday May 16 2012
A LOCAL nun has joined a new religious group after claiming to have suffered physical and mental abuse at the hands of priests for many years.
Mother Maria Francesca has ‘given up Rome’ to become a Franciscan Sister of the Blessed Sacrament in Liverpool. The 58-year-old is now part of the ‘Ecumenical Catholic Church’, which allows women priests and married priests. A NUN from Duleek has broken away from the Vatican as she says she cannot stay silent anymore on the ‘ bullying, sexual and physical abuse’ she and others suffered at the hands of Catholic priests during the past few decades.
Mother Maria Francesca is a member of the Stears family in Duleek, but has been a nun in the UK for many years, recently ‘giving up Rome’ to become a Franciscan Sister of the Blessed Sacrament in Liverpool.
The 58- year- old says she defended the Catholic Church to the hilt in the past, but could no longer stay silent on the abuse she has suffered and witnessed, or the fact the Vatican imposes rules she simply cannot follow.
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