Leadership of the Vatican women's magazine gives up: "male control"
The management of a Vatican women's magazine has resigned because it considers itself to be under the "direct control of men". The magazine had recently focused on the abuse of nuns and the oppression of women in the Catholic Church.
"We are throwing in the towel because we find ourselves surrounded by a climate of mistrust and progressive delegitimization," wrote the founder of Donne Chiese Mondo (Women Church World), Lucetta Scaraffia, in a letter to Pope Francis.
"Now it seems to us that a vital initiative is being silenced and that there is a return to the outdated, withered mores of selecting women deemed trustworthy under the direct control of men," Scaraffia wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the news agency DPA on Tuesday.
Donne Chiesa Mondo is a monthly supplement to the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. The magazine was founded in 2012 with the support of the then Pope Benedict XVI. The director of the Osservatore RomanoAndrea Monda, denied on Tuesday that she had ever selected anyone based on the "criterion of obedience".
With Scaraffia, all ten remaining employees are leaving the editorial team, according to the Vatican news platform Vatican News reported.
In February, the magazine denounced the Catholic Church's inaction with regard to the abuse of nuns. "If the Church continues to close its eyes to the scandal, (...) nothing will ever change regarding the oppression of women in the Church." Francis himself had admitted that sexual abuse of nuns was a problem in the Church.
