The founder and all-female editorial board of the Vatican's women's magazine have quit after what they say was a campaign to discredit them.
The editorial committee of Women Church World allege the campaign aimed to put them "under the direct control of men" after they denounced the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy members.
The monthly glossy magazine, published alongside the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, made the announcement in a planned April 1 editorial and an open letter to Pope Francis.
In the editorial, magazine founder Lucetta Scaraffia wrote: "We are throwing in the towel because we feel surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimisation."
"We believe there are no longer the conditions to continue our collaboration with L’Osservatore Romano.”
Ms Scaraffia said writers with an "editorial line opposed to ours" were brought onto the publication's staff.
“After the attempts to put us under control, came the indirect attempts to delegitimize us,” she told AP .
New editor Andrea Monda has denied having tried to weaken “Women Church World” and said that he tried to bolster other female voices and viewpoints in L’Osservatore.
“Seeking to avoid interference with the monthly insert, I asked for a truly free confrontation in the daily paper, not built on the mechanism of one against the other or of closed groups,” he said, in a statement.
And I did so as a sign of openness and of the ‘paressia’ (freedom to speak truth) requested by Pope Francis.”
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