The Vatican today acknowledged a report it received six years ago indicating that some priests and missionaries were forcing nuns to have sex with them, and were in some cases committing rape and forcing the victims to have abortions.
Some nuns were forced to take the contraceptive pill, the report cited in the Rome daily
la Repubblica
said.
The Vatican said the issue was restricted to a certain geographical area, but the report cited cases in 23 countries, including Ireland, the United States, Brazil, the Philippines, India and Italy.
The allegations first appeared in the Kansas City-based National Catholic Reporterlast Friday and in a small Italian religious news agency Adista.
"The Holy See is dealing with the issue in collaboration with bishops, the Union of Superiors General [heads of male religious orders] and the International Union of Superiors General [heads of female religious orders]," said Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
Allegations made in the report, signed with names and surnames, were made known to Church authorities on several occasions throughout the 1990s, the article by la Repubblica'srespected Vatican correspondent Marco Politi said.
The author of the report was nun and physician Maura O'Donohue, who presented it to the head of the Vatican's Congregation for Holy Orders, Cardinal Martinez Somalo, in February 1995.
He ordered a working group from the Congregation to study the problem with O'Donohue, who was AIDS coordinator for Cafod, the London-based Roman Catholic Fund for Overseas Development. O'Donohue made specific reference to certain cases, one in which a priest forced a nun to have an abortion, after which she died. He then officiated at her requiem mass.
In 1998, Marie McDonald, mother superior of the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa, presented her report on sexual abuse and rape committed by priests and bishops.
La Repubblicaquoted Ms McDonald as saying she knew of no inspections taking place after her report.