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| Pope Francis, shown here accepting a gift from an Arab journalist aboard the papal plane, said the problem of sexual abuse by priests could be found "anywhere" (AFP Photo/LUCA ZENNARO) |
ABOARD
PAPAL PLANE (AFP) - Pope Francis admitted Tuesday that Catholic priests and
bishops had sexually abused nuns, the latest scandal to rock the church.
"There
are some priests and also bishops who have done it," the pontiff said in
response to a journalist's question on the abuse of nuns, speaking on the
return flight from his trip to the United Arab Emirates.
The papal
admission followed a rare outcry last week from the Vatican's women's magazine
over the sexual abuse of nuns, leaving them feeling forced to have abortions or
raise children not recognised by their priest fathers.
The issue
hit the headlines last year after a nun accused an Indian bishop of repeatedly
raping her in a case that triggered rare dissent within the country's Catholic
Church.
Francis
said the problem could be found "anywhere" but was prevalent in
"some new congregations and in some regions".
"I
think it's still going on, because it's not something that just goes away like
that. On the contrary," he added.
He said the
Church has "suspended several clerics" and the Vatican has been
"working (on the issue) for a long time".
'Must do more'
"I
don't want to hear it said that the Church has not got this problem, because it
has.
"Must
we do more? Yes! Do we want to? Yes!" he said.
He said it
was a cultural problem, the roots of which lie in "seeing women as second
class".
The February
issue of "Women Church World", a supplement distributed with the
Vatican's Osservatore Romano newspaper, warned that nuns have been silent over
abuse for decades for fear of retaliation.
It said the
Vatican received reports of priests abusing nuns in Africa in the 1990s.
"If
the Church continues to close its eyes to the scandal -- made even worse by the
fact that abuse of women brings about procreation and is therefore at the
origin of forced abortions and children who aren't recognised by priests -- the
oppression of women in the Church will never change," editor Lucetta
Scaraffia wrote.
In the
Indian case, Bishop Franco Mulakkal was arrested on September 21 in the
southern state of Kerala on suspicion of raping the nun in question 13 times
between 2014 and 2016.
Pope
Francis suspended him the day before his arrest, appointing another bishop in
his place. Mulakkal, 53, who headed the diocese of Jalandhar in the northern
state of Punjab, has denied the allegations.
The nun
first spoke out in June but police only started formal questioning in
September, as fury over the case mounted.
Five nuns
-- in a rare public show of dissent within the Indian Church -- and dozens of
supporters staged days of protests.
Failure by
Church officials to take action on sexual abuse allegations has been one of the
biggest scandals to hit Roman Catholicism globally in recent years.
Pope Francis's public admission that priests have used nuns as "sexual slaves" -- and may still be doing so -- marks a new chapter in the abuse crisis rocking the Catholic church, writes @ellaafp https://t.co/5KjjaLHVgY— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 6, 2019
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