Editorial board says Vatican tried to discredit them after they denounced abuse of nuns

The founder and all-female editorial team of the Vatican’s women’s magazine have resigned over what they say was a campaign to discredit them after the publication of an article that lifted the lid on the widespread abuse of nuns.

Lucetta Scaraffia, the founder of the monthly glossy Women Church World, has written an open letter to Pope Francis in which she explained that the team was “throwing in the towel” because they felt “surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive delegitimisation”. The resignation letter will also be published in the April edition of the magazine.

The editorial team of 11 had worked together on the magazine, which has been published alongside the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, since its launch in 2012.

Scaraffia told the Guardian the situation started to change with the nomination by the pontiff in December of Andrea Monda, the new male director of L’Osservatore. Soon after his appointment, Monda said he would also be taking over the editorship of the women’s publication, but reconsidered after the editorial team threatened to quit.

The Catholic weeklies that distribute translations of Women Church World in France, Spain and Latin America also threatened to stop distributing.

“They wanted to control all communication,” said Scaraffia. “Up until [Monda’s arrival], we enjoyed a very free rein. The truth is, they couldn’t accept this. This situation has caused us a lot of suffering.”

Scaraffia said that after the failed attempt to control the magazine came indirect efforts to influence the editorial line and “delegitimise us” within the Holy See’s communications, while bringing in other female writers with an opposing editorial view.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Women Church World, which has been published alongside the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, since its launch in 2012. Photograph: Women Church World

“There’s a big difference between a group of women who make independent decisions to those chosen by a director to speak about various themes.”

Scaraffia said in her open letter to the pope that it seemed as if a vital initiative had been “reduced to silence” and that there had been “a return to the antiquated and arid custom of choosing women considered trustworthy from on-high, under the direct control of men”.

Monda denied interference in the editorial process and said the magazine would continue under a new team. “I can assure you that the future of the magazine is not in question,” he said. “This story does not stop, but continues, without any clericalism of any kind.”

A source close to the Vatican claimed Scaraffiawas considered a difficult person to work with, hence Monda’s reference to “clericalism” in his statement.

An ardent feminist, Scaraffia was known for not toeing the line. In March 2018, she denounced the servitude of sisters who work for pittance to cook and clean for clerics.

But an article she wrote in February, which highlighted cases of nuns being raped or abused by priests and bishops, or being forced to have an abortion or leave the church if they fell pregnant as a result, stoked the most controversy.

The pontiff acknowledged the issue for the first time a few days after the article was published. He said more needed to be done to confront the issue, while pointing to the action taken by Pope Benedict XVI against a French order after nuns there had been reduced to “sexual slavery” by priests.

The pontiff’s comments came two weeks before a landmark Vatican summit addressing paedophilia within the church.

A final editorial produced by the women in the April edition of Women Church World speaks about the “conditions no longer existing” for the team to continue working with L’Osservatore, citing its initiatives with other female contributors.

“They are returning to the practice of selecting women who ensure obedience,” the editorial read. “They are returning to clerical self-reference and are giving up that parresia [freedom to speak freely] that Pope Francis so often seeks.”

The abuse of nuns has been widely known for years, but much like clerical abuse against children, the Holy See – the Catholic Church’s governing body – has been silent and failed to take concrete action against accused priests.

Scaraffia said there had been “absolutely no moves” to adequately address the issue since the pope’s comments. “It’s a very serious problem within the church,” she said.

The resignations are the latest disruption within the Vatican’s communications system and follow the abrupt resignations in late December of the Holy See’s press spokesperson, Greg Burke, and his deputy, Paloma Garcia Ovejero, due to strategic differences with Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the dicastery for communications.

“It’s a very good thing that this is all coming out and is just another chunk of the implosion that is happening and has been going on for a very long time,” said Robert Mickens, the Rome-based editor of the English-language edition of Catholic daily newspaper La Croix.

“It’s positive that Scaraffia’s point [on the abuse of nuns] is out there as it’s an issue that needs to be talked about more within the church.”