Pope Francis calls sexual abuse of nuns ‘a problem’ for the first time,

Aboard the papal plane CNN — For the first time, Pope Francis has acknowledged the sexual abuse of nuns by priests and bishops as a “problem” in the Catholic Church, saying that “we’ve been working on this for some time.” The Pope’s comments, which came during a press conference aboard the papal plane on a return flight to Rome from the United Arab Emirates, come as the Catholic Church is dealing with sexual abuse scandals on several continents. “But when he became Pope, the first thing bring me this from the archives and he began,” Pope Francis said. “Pope Benedict had the courage to dissolve a women’s congregation that had a certain level because this slavery of women had entered, even sexual slavery, by clerics or by the founder,” the Pope said. Last week, Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, ran an article on the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy, saying that “in this last year many new papers have raised the veil on this tragedy, and many religious from third world countries but also more advanced countries, have begun to speak and denounce.” “If we continue to close our eyes in front of this scandal – made even more serious by the fact that abuse of women includes procreation and so imposed abortions and children not recognized by priests – the condition of oppression of women in the church will never change,” said the article, written by Lucetta Scaraffia.