Vatican Newspaper: Nuns Work in Slave-Like Conditions

Too many nuns performing household or other lower-level tasks for cardinals, bishops, and local priests work in almost slave-like conditions, the official Vatican newspaper reported last week.

L’Osservatore Romano published an article on this in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which started in the film industry in Hollywood and has grown into a global uprising against the abuse and exploitation of women.

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Some nuns rise at dawn to prepare breakfast for senior priests and go to bed “only after serving dinner, cleaning the house, washing, and ironing laundry,” the paper states, quoting Sister Maria, a nun who has heard countless such stories.

“In such ‘service’, nuns do not have a defined or regulated working hours unlike secular workers, and their pay is arbitrary, often very modest,” she added. “All this causes a strong internal rebellion in some of them.”

Another nun, Sister Paula, told the paper that the skills and desires of nuns are often ignored. “I have met nuns with a doctorate in theology who are suddenly sent to cook or wash,” she said.

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“Behind all this unfortunately still lies the perception that women are less valuable than men, and especially that a priest in the Church is worth everything while a nun is worth nothing,” she added.

Pope Francis has promised to give more space to women in the Catholic Church and has asked a special committee to consider the role of women as assistants to priests in early Christianity. However, he excludes the possibility of ordaining women as priests.

The Vatican newspaper altered the names of the nuns it spoke with to protect their privacy.