According to Daily Mail, two catholic nuns became pregnant after working in Africa. The situation has prompted the church to launch an investigation into how the nuns got pregnant despite their vows of chastity.
The two women belong to separate religious orders in Sicily. One of the women, a mother superior (a senior monastic) discovered she was several weeks pregnant. She was working with “fallen women and their children” when she discovered her own pregnancy. She is originally from Madagascar and had been caring for the elderly at an institute in Ragusa.
The other woman, 34 years old, discovered her pregnancy news when she complained of stomach pain.
“There is consternation at this news, said a church source in Rome, where the Catholic Church has its headquarters.
“It appears that both women were back in their home nations and obviously had some form of sexual encounter.
“An investigation has been launched. They both breached strict rules of chastity but the welfare of their children is uppermost.” The two nuns are now under investigation by the Catholic church, a catholic church source in Rome said.
“It appears that both women were back in their home nations and obviously had some form of sexual encounter.
“An investigation has been launched; they both breached strict rules of chastity but the welfare of their children is uppermost.”
It is thought the women are likely to leave their religious work when their children are born.
Earlier this year Pope Francis, who has 18 million followers on Twitter, said that some nuns had been sexually abused by priests and bishops, even using them as sex slaves.
He also acknowledged that sexual abuse of nuns “was still taking place”.
Speaking to reporters on a historic tour of the Middle East in February, the pontiff said the church had an issue and “the roots lay in society seeing women as second class”.
He said: “Pope Benedict had the courage to dissolve a female congregation which was at a certain level, because this slavery of women had entered it — slavery, even to the point of sexual slavery — on the part of clerics or the founder,” the BBC reported.
Pope Francis said sexual abuse of nuns was an ongoing problem, but happened largely in “certain congregations, predominantly new ones”.
“I think it’s still taking place because it’s not as though the moment you become aware of something it goes away.”