Pope says nuns were reduced to sexual slavery

Francis, who also said there had been one case where sisters had been reduced to “sexual slavery”, vowed to do more to fight the problem.

The pope admitted to the problem for the first time in public during a news conference while returning to Rome from the United Arab Emirates.

The acknowledgement comes just two weeks before he hosts an unprecedented gathering of bishops to craft a global response to the scandal of priesthood predators who targeted children and the superiors who covered up the crimes.

Francis was asked about priests who target adult women – the religious sisters who are the backbone of the Catholic Church’s education, health care and social service ministries around the globe – and whether the Holy See might consider a similar universal approach to combat that issue.

“It’s not that everyone does this, but there have been priests and bishops who have,” Francis told reporters. “And I think that it’s continuing because it’s not like once you realise it that it stops. It continues. And for some time we’ve been working on it.”

“Should we do something more? Yes. Is there the will? Yes. But it’s a path that we have already begun,” Francis said.

Francis’ acknowledgement of the problem comes as he prepares to decide the fate of the disgraced American ex-cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, who is accused of abusing minors as well as adult seminarians.

That case also…