- Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Mets advance on Lindor blast, Dodgers stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Injury-ravaged Krygios aiming to return at Australian Open
- Greek international Baldock, dead at 31: family
- EU talks deportation hubs to stem migration
- Deaths and repression sideline Suu Kyi's party ahead of Myanmar vote
- S. Africa offers a lesson on how not to shut down a coal plant
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Mets advance on Lindor grand slam, Yankees and Tigers win
- Taiwan President Lai vows to 'resist annexation' of island
- China's solar goes from supremacy to oversupply
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
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- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
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- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
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- Pharrell Williams to co-chair Met Gala exploring Black dandyism
- Wall Street indices hit fresh records as Chinese shares tumble
- Taiwan's president to deliver key speech for National Day
- Sea row on the menu as ASEAN leaders meet China's Li
- Injured Kane won't start England's Nations League clash with Greece
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Mozambique starts tallying votes in tense election
- Zelensky moves to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
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- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Lebanon facing 'catastrophic' situation as 600,000 displaced: UN
- US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon
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- Run blitz edges India and South Africa closer to World Cup semi-finals
Porn for 'spiritual growth': nuns detail abuse by renowed priest
Two former nuns said Wednesday that a world-renowned artist priest made them take part in threesomes and watch porn so they would "grow spiritually".
Slovenian mosaic artist Marko Rupnik, 69, is accused of sexually and psychologically abusing at least 20 women for nearly 30 years at a religious community in Slovenia.
"He took me to pornographic theatres to help me 'grow spiritually'," Gloria Branciani, who was a member of the community until 1994, told journalists at a press conference in Rome.
"He said that I would not grow spiritually if I did not meet his sexual needs," she said, describing how he sexualised religious concepts.
"We had another nun have sex with us because he said it was like the Trinity," Branciani said, referring to the central Christian doctrine of three persons within one God.
Rupnik was briefly excommunicated in 2020 for absolving someone of having sexual relations with him, but was reinstated after he formally repented.
He was finally expelled from the Jesuit order -- of which Pope Francis is a member -- last June.
In October, Francis waived the statute of limitations on the offences, opening the way for potential disciplinary proceedings.
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the abuse tracking site Bishop Accountability, which documents abuse within the Catholic Church, described Rupnik as a "powerful cleric who was protected at the highest levels of the Church and the Vatican."
The press conference comes five years after an unprecedented summit at the Vatican on sexual abuse in the Church, at the end of which Francis promised a "zero tolerance" approached.
"The Rupnik case shows that little has changed," said Barrett Doyle, who called for an independent investigation and the publication of its findings.
Y.Kobayashi--AMWN