Vatican Cites Priests’ Abuse of African Nuns

Faced with reports that priests have sexually abused many African nuns, the Vatican said Tuesday that it is working with bishops and leaders of religious orders to deal with the issue.

“The problem is known and is restricted to a geographically limited area,” the Vatican’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said in a statement.

He did not specify the area, but two reports--Friday in the weekly National Catholic Reporter and Monday in the Rome daily La Repubblica--said the problem is serious in Africa, where the church has grown rapidly and recruited many priests and nuns in recent years.

National Catholic Reporter quoted a series of reports written over the last seven years by senior members of women’s religious orders and a priest who now holds a prominent post in the national bishops conference in Washington.

The reports said nuns, viewed as safe targets in AIDS-ravaged Africa, were being sexually harassed by priests and even raped.

The most extreme instances were cited in a 1995 memo written by Sister Maura O’Donohue, a physician and member of the Medical Missionary of Mary order.

“Examples were also given of situations where priests were bringing sisters [and other young women] to Catholic health institutions for abortion,” the memo said.