UNITED STATES
The Dallas Morning News
10:30 PM CST on Monday, March 6, 2006
Vatican officials were advised repeatedly in the 1990s that priests and bishops were sexually abusing nuns, according to a 2001Abuse Tracker story.
The Vatican responded by acknowledging publicly that "the problem is known and is restricted to a geographically limited area," which it did not identify. The Vatican said it was "dealing with the question" and urged people not to forget "the frequently heroic fidelity of the great majority" of priests and nuns.
Below are excerpts from two of the leaked church memos that formed the basis of the Reporter's story. (See www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/documents/africadocuments.htm for more details.)
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The nuns who wrote the memos consider them confidential and declined to talk to The Dallas Morning News, spokeswomen for their religious orders said.