A hit documentary, “Sex Slaves in the Catholic Church”, has been pulled from the Franco-German television channel Arte after a priest complained to a German court.
The big-budget media investigation, about the way some Catholic priests have abused nuns and used them for sex, was broadcast in March and sold widely internationally since.
The abused nuns come from different parts of the world.
Some weeks prior to the documentary’s release, Pope Francis admitted some rogue priests had used nuns as “sexual slaves”.
He said the Vatican had had to dissolve a French order because its founder was preying on its sisters.
At about the same time, the Vatican’s women’s magazine Women Church World also reported that some nuns were forced into having abortions.
A spokesperson for Arte says it was forced to pull the documentary from its replay site earlier this month after a press tribunal in Hamburg slapped a temporary injunction on the film following a complaint from a priest.
The tribunal says the priest complained that, while he was not shown in the documentary, he was “recognisable” from an interview given by a nun.
He claims in the interview that the nun “gave the impression that the priest had forced a nun into sex against her will”.
The priest was not identified in publication of the complaint.
Arte says it is challenging the tribunal’s decision.
The documentary, which was three years in the making, has been the most-watched documentary of the year so far on the French arm of the channel.
It was seen by 1.5 million people live. An additional 1.7 million have seen it since on replay.
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