The abuse of women – especially consecrated women in religious life, and including but not limited to sexual abuse – by clerics of every rank, on every continent, is almost certainly the most under-reported of the Church’s crises. En route to Rome from Abu Dhabi last week, Pope Francis became the first reigning pontiff to address the atrocity directly and in words. “It’s true, it’s a problem,” Pope Francis told Nicole Winfield of Associated Press, who had asked him about it.
It would have been difficult for him to do otherwise than acknowledge the issue, especially given the claims published recently in various news outlets, including the Women Church World supplement of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.
