A Brazilian cardinal confirmed the existence of a home where former nuns "abandoned" by the Catholic Church, including some who became prostitutes to survive, have been sheltered at a Vatican residence for more than a year, a Brazilian cardinal said.
Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz confirmed the house's existence at an undisclosed location in Vatican City during an interview for the February issue of the Vatican's magazine Women Church World, reports news agency AFP.
In an interview about women's roles in the church, the cardinal said existence of the home underscored Pope Francis' desire to rectify abuses within the Church, such as nuns who are expelled from their convents with nowhere to go.
"At times they are completely abandoned," Braz was quoted as saying.
"But things are changing. The most significant example is precisely the pope's decision to establish in Rome a house to welcome in from the street nuns who were sent away by us, or by the superiors, especially if they are foreigners."
The cardinal admitted that he visited the home and found "a world of wounds there, but also of hope."
According to him, in some cases, mother superiors had withheld documents from nuns who wanted to leave the convent, and in others nuns were just told to depart. "These people have entered the convent as nuns and find themselves in this condition. There have even been some cases of turning to prostitution to support themselves," he said. "These are ex-nuns!" Rebuilding trust among this group was of utmost importance, Braz said.
"We need to change the attitude of rejection, the temptation to ignore these people, to say 'it's not our problem anymore',” he was quoted as saying.
The women in the shelter home can stay as long as they need to sort out their situations and find work.
