Convents through out Europe, desperate for recruits, have been buying Indian peasant girls from the Catholic hierarchy in Kerala, south-west India, the Sunday Times said in a front-page story.
The newspaper said the total number of girls brought to
Europe in this fashion was put by the Vatican at around 1,200. Inquiries suggested that the true figure was higher, almost certainly 1,500 and possibly 2,000 or more, the newspaper said.
It added that for each girl some convents had paid £250 to £300 sterling (SA536 to SA643), involving not only the lives of 1,500 or more Indian peasant girls but more than £300,000 (SA643.000) in church funds.
The newspaper said it had identified convents ' in Britain,Italy, France and Germany which were involved in this trade. Convents in Spain were also known to have Keralese girls, and even America was thought to have taken shipments.
The newspaper said the affair was so complex that after almost a year of discreet inquiries the Vatican was still uncertain of the basic facts.
The scandal was now passing out of the Vatican's control, it added. Indian priests and nuns in Rome were so concerned about the affair — and so distrustful of the Vatican's own part in it —that in November they proposed to take the unprecedented step of setting up their own independent inquiry.
Two Italian convents reported to have accepted Keralese girls were named by the newspaper. Their recruitment problem, according to the paper, was solved with the help of an Indian priest.
The Associated Press reported that the Sunday Times said it was an "extraordinary scandal" involving some of the most senior churchmen in the Vatican. The Vatican is investigating the allegations that the girls were being recruited "under pressure", the Associated Press reported.
A senior Vatican official confirmed this today.The Vatican official, who did not want his name published, said an investigator was sent out by the Hoiy See several months ago, but his report has not vet been made. The official said that the Vatican had learned enough about the case to consider it "a very messy situation all the way round".
Three Vatican congregations are involved in the investigation. They are the Congregations of the Religious, of Eastern Churches, and of Missions. The Vatican source said that the allegations came to the Vatican last spring from Sonia Dougal, a language teacher at the University of Florence, who accompanied an ailing nun-recruit to her home in India.
The source said the Vatican was not sure yet how many Indian girls were involved. However, he reported having
visited one convent in Italy recently and finding so many Indian faces, "that I thought I was in Bombay",
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/110339030/11948683?zoomLevel=3
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