The Vatican continues to improve its moral doctrine and an overall image, this week, several senior priests have had to resign over advance to the nun, The Local Italy reported on Thursday.
In the Vatican, the relationships between nuns and priests are complicated sometimes because of sexual harassment, confirmed the official source. This week, a senior Vatican priest accused of making advances towards a nun during confession has resigned.
“Geissler decided to take this step to limit the damage already done to the congregation and to his community,” a Holy See statement reads, noting that he “reserves the right for possible civil legal action”.
Father Hermann Geissler resigned as one of three top officials at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which ensures Roman Catholic moral doctrine. The Austrian priest’s behaviour towards the former nun Doris Wagner made her complain, adding Geissler’s inappropriate behaviour during confession in 2014.
The Vatican fights against an inappropriate behaviour in the walls of its institutions
According to the former nun Doris Wagner, father Geissler has been trying to take advantage during the confession. A Canonical disciplinary procedure in 2014 let Geissler off with a warning after accusing him of inappropriate behaviour during the standard religious procedure.
“He kept me for hours, kneeling before him, he told me that he loved me and that he knew that I loved him and that even if we couldn’t marry, there were other ways,” an ex-nun said and added the Austrian priest tried to take her in his arms and kiss her.
The nun recalls she panicked and ran away. All these recollections were revealed as a testimony she put on social media. The German former nun also accused another priest of raping her in 2008.
After Wagner’s claim, father Hermann Geissler was removed from the Vatican but remains a priest in a community where “many young nuns live”, according to ex-nun.
