Pope admits priests, bishops sexually abuse nuns

The Vatican on Wednesday clarified statements by Pope Francis concerning the "sexual slavery" of nuns by a French order, saying he was referring to the abuse of power that is also present in cases of sexual abuse.

After landing in Rome, Feb., 5 at the end of his apostolic visit to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis visited the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

"It's not that everyone does this, but there have been priests and bishops who have", he explained, adding, "it's not as though the moment you become aware of something it goes away".

Last year, the French website La Parisien reported the case of a former nun who was abused and raped by her parish priest between 2010 and 2011.

In terms of the response of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis insisted that this had "already begun".

"There have been priests and also bishops who have done that", the Pope said of sexually abusing nuns. "In an era, like ours, where there is a strong temptation to see a clash between Christian civilization and the Islamic one... we wanted to give another clear and decisive signal that encounter, respect and dialogue is possible", he said at his regular general audience. She said she only told 2 people of the incident at the time, her provincial superior and her spiritual director because she felt silenced by the Catholic Church's culture of secrecy.

For years, cases of abuse of women in the church have always been known.

Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said Francis "spoke of "sexual slavery" to mean "manipulation" or a type of abuse of power that is reflected in a sexual abuse".

Francis implied at the February 5 news conference that the abuse of nuns by clergymen was being handed on a case-by-case basis.

In a separate case in India past year, a bishop was arrested over allegations that he raped a nun 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

"There are cases, usually in new congregations and in some regions more than others", he said.

Christelle said she had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest of her congregation in France between 2010 and 2011.

The magazine's editor, Lucetta Scaraffia, said Pope Francis's acknowledgement of the abuse "can be of some help", but warned that the Church needs to act.

"He was unable to control himself... he had a split personality".

The pope said the trip was "brief but very important", linking it to his 2017 visit to Al-Azhar, Egypt, the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam, and wrote "a new page in the dialogue between Christianity and Islam and in efforts to promote peace in the world based on human brotherhood".

"I can't say "this does not happen in my house".

More than half a million nuns are represented by the group around the world.