DENVER (CO)
Crux
February 5, 2019
By Inés San Martín
Pope Francis on Tuesday acknowledged the problem of Catholic nuns being sexually abused by priests and bishops, saying the Church needs to do more to address it. He also said that the killing of those who refuse to convert to Islam, including Christians, is unfortunately “our daily bread.”
The pope spoke to journalists aboard the plane carrying him back to Rome following a Feb. 3-5 visit to the United Arab Emirates, the first-ever papal outing to the Arabian Peninsula.
Francis was asked about a series of articles in the women’s magazine of the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, objecting to the reality that religious sisters often have no protection from sexually abusive priests who force themselves on them and, if they become pregnant, often compel them to have an abortion.
The matter was raised in Women, Church, World, a monthly supplement. Such reports have circulated at least since the late 1990s, when the National Catholic Reporter published several internal documents from women’s orders detailing the problem, which tends to be especially pronounced in the developing world.
The Vatican article claimed that nuns have been silenced for years by fear of retaliation against themselves or their orders.
“Mistreatment of women is a problem,” Francis said in reply. “I would say that humanity still hasn’t matured. Women are treated as second class. It’s a cultural problem … in some countries, the mistreatment of women goes as far as femicide.”
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