Pope vows to fight nun abuse, urges service not servitude

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has vowed to combat the sexual abuse of nuns and urged religious sisters to just say no when clergy want to use them as maids.

Francis told 850 superiors of religious orders gathered over the weekend for the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General, the main umbrella group of nuns, that theirs is a vocation of service, not servitude.

The union’s president, Maltese Sister Carmen Sammut, told Francis that clergy abuse of sisters was “diffused in many parts of the world” and included sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, as well as taking of their property. She added that there were also cases of nuns abusing other nuns.

Francis said sexual abuse of sisters was “a serious, grave problem” of which he was well aware.

“We have to fight this, and also the service of religious sisters: Please: Service yes, servitude no.”

Francis noted that sometimes the problem lies with the superior herself, a reference to cases where religious superiors submitted to demands placed on them by bishops, to the detriment of her own sisters and novices.

“You didn’t become a sister to become a priest’s maid,” Francis told the sisters in a Vatican audience hall. He said if they want to do domestic work, they should join orders that care for the elderly in oldage homes because “that is service, not servitude.”

Francis was also asked about his recent comments about the role of female deacons in the early Christian church. He said this week that scholars on a Vatican commission looking into the role of women deacons failed to come to a consensus on whether they received the same sacramental ordination as men.

The pope said the issue required further study “because I can’t make a sacramental decree without a theological or historical foundation.”