VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican magazine denounced widespread exploitation of nuns for cheap or free labor in the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, saying the male hierarchy should stop treating them like lowly servants. 
 
 Pope Francis greets a group of nuns during the general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican December 20, 2017. REUTERS/Max Rossi 
 
 The article in the monthly “Women, Church, World”, remarkable for an official Vatican publication, described the drudgery of nuns who do work such as cooking, cleaning and waiting on tables for cardinals, bishops and priests. 
 
 The article, based on the comments of several unnamed nuns, described how some work in the residences of “men of the Church, waking at dawn to prepare breakfast and going to sleep once dinner is served, the house is in order and the laundry cleaned and ironed”. 
 
 It said their remuneration was “random and often modest”. 
 
 In many cases, the nuns, who take vows of poverty, receive no pay because they are members of female religious orders and are sent to the residences of male Church officials as part of their assignments. 
 
 In the past, most of the nuns working as domestic help in male-run residences or institutions such as seminaries were local nationals. But in recent years, many have come from Africa, Asia and other parts of the developing world. 
 
 The author of the article wrote that what most saddened one of the nuns she talked to was that “they are rarely invited to sit at the table they serve” and made to eat in the kitchen by themselves. 
 
 One nun said she knew of fellow sisters who had PhDs in subjects such as theology and had been, with no explanation, ordered to do domestic work or other chores that had “no relationship to their intellectual formation”. 
 
 The experiences of such nuns, the article said, could be transformed “into a richness for the whole Church, if the male hierarchy sees it as an occasion for a true reflection on power (in the Church)”. 
 
 The magazine, a monthly supplement to the Vatican daily newspaper Osservatore Romano, is written by women journalists and academics. 
 
 Only a handful of women hold senior positions in the Vatican hierarchy, including Barbara Jatta, who last year became the first woman to head the Vatican Museums. 
 
 Several nuns have senior roles in Vatican departments that look after religious issues. 
 
 Unlike his predecessors, Pope Francis lives in a Vatican guest house which is run like a hotel and takes his meals in the main dining room which is staffed by paid waiters. 
 
 By contrast, the late Pope John Paul, who reigned from 1978 to 2005, had a team of five Polish nuns who ran his household in the papal apartments in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. 
 
 The household of former Pope Benedict, who resigned in 2013 was looked after by about eight female members of a lay Catholic organization known as Memores Domini. 
 
 The entire March edition of the magazine is dedicated to the theme of women and work. ||||| Though convents also depend on the money generated by the sisters living there, many nuns, unlike priests, are not paid, or are poorly paid, when they attend conferences or when they preach, she said. 
 
 But the article, “The (Nearly) Free Work of Sisters,” noted that it was not just a question of money. A bigger problem, the article pointed out, is that many sisters say that while male vocations are valued, the work of women is not. 
 
 “Behind all this is still the unfortunate idea that women are worth less than men, and above all that the priest is everything while sisters are nothing in the church,” Sister Paule said in the article. 
 
 The article confirmed that while women have been clamoring to have a greater role in the decision making of the male-centric Catholic Church, the road is still steep. 
 
 Still, some efforts are underway to address the problem. The annual Voices of Faith conference, which aims to showcase the “underutilized potential of women to exercise leadership at all levels of the Catholic Church” will take place on March 8. 
 
 And a “Manifesto of Women for the Church,” also published in the March issue of Women Church World, calls for giving women “roles that are coherent with our competences and capacities.” The document has circulated on social media and is being shared by women who are active in church institutions and parishes throughout Italy. 
 
 Pope Francis, who is said to read the magazine, has raised the matter of women’s roles in the church before, but his concerns have yet to be translated into concrete changes. ||||| Lucetta Scaraffia, editor in chief of "Donne, Chiesa, Mondo" (Women, Church, World), poses for portraits in her house in Rome, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The March edition of "Women, Church, World" _ the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Lucetta Scaraffia, editor in chief of "Donne, Chiesa, Mondo" (Women, Church, World), poses for portraits in her house in Rome, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The March edition of "Women, Church, World" _ the monthly magazine of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano _ is denouncing how nuns are treated... (Associated Press) 
 
 VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican magazine has denounced how nuns are often treated like indentured servants by cardinals and bishops, for whom they cook and clean for next to no pay. 
 
 The March edition of "Women Church World," the monthly women's magazine of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, hit newsstands Thursday. Its expose on the underpaid labor and unappreciated intellect of religious sisters confirmed that the magazine is increasingly becoming the imprint of the Catholic Church's #MeToo movement. 
 
 "Some of them serve in the homes of bishops or cardinals, others work in the kitchens of church institutions or teach. Some of them, serving the men of the church, get up in the morning to make breakfast, and go to sleep after dinner is served, the house cleaned and the laundry washed and ironed," reads one of the lead articles. 
 
 A nun identified only as Sister Marie describes how sisters serve clergy but "are rarely invited to sit at the tables they serve." 
 
 While such servitude is common knowledge, it is remarkable that an official Vatican publication would dare put such words to paper and publicly denounce how the church systematically exploits its own nuns. 
 
 But that pluck has begun to define "Women Church World," which launched six years ago as a monthly insert in L'Osservatore Romano and is now a stand-alone magazine distributed for free online and alongside the printed newspaper in Italian, Spanish, French and English. 
 
 "Until now, no one has had the courage to denounce these things," the magazine's editor, Lucetta Scaraffia, told The Associated Press. "We try to give a voice to those who don't have the courage to say these words" publicly. 
 
 "Inside the church, women are exploited," she said in a recent interview. 
 
 While Pope Francis has told Scaraffia he appreciates and reads the magazine, it is by no means beloved within the deeply patriarchal Vatican system. Recent issues have raised eyebrows, including the March 2016 edition on "Women who preach," which appeared to advocate allowing lay women to deliver homilies at Mass. 
 
 One of the authors had to publish a subsequent clarification saying he didn't mean to suggest a change to existing doctrine or practice. 
 
 Other recent issues have explored the symbolic power of women's bodies and "rape as torture." 
 
 Scaraffia, a Catholic feminist and professor of history at Rome's La Sapienza university, sees the magazine as a necessary tool to push the envelope on issues that matter to half the members of the Catholic Church. The fact that a women's supplement to L'Osservatore Romano is even necessary is indicative of what she's up against. L'Osservatore is the official newspaper of the Vatican, publishing official papal decrees and speeches and maintaining an editorial line that reflects the priorities of the Holy See. 
 
 The March issue of its women's magazine is dedicated to "Women and Work," and explores many issues that are in some ways correlated to the #MeToo movement, including the gender pay gap, the lack of women in leadership positions, and the "Ni Una Menos" movement to combat feminicide and violence against women, often by spurned lovers. 
 
 During his recent trip to Peru, Francis denounced feminicide and gender-based crimes that have turned his home continent, Latin America, into the most violent place on Earth for women. He also has frequently called for dignified work — and dignified pay — for all. And in a recent prologue to a book on women's issues, Francis acknowledged that he was concerned that in many cases, women's work in the church "sometimes is more servitude than true service." 
 
 The March edition of "Women Church World" drives that home, with a lead article "The (nearly) free work of sisters," by French journalist Marie-Lucile Kubacki, the Rome correspondent for the La Vie magazine of the Le Monde group. 
 
 Kubacki noted that sisters often work for prelates or church institutions without contracts. When one falls sick, she is simply sent back to her congregation which sends another in her place. 
 
 Other sisters, meanwhile, show remarkable intellectual gifts and earn advanced degrees, but aren't allowed to put them to use because the collective nature of religious communities often discourages personal advancement, another nun, Sister Paule, told the magazine. 
 
 "Behind all this is the unfortunate idea that women are worth less than men, and above all that priests are everything in the church while sisters are nothing," Sister Paul said. 
 
 Sister Marie noted that many nuns from Africa, Asia or Latin America who come to study in Rome hail from poor families, whose extended care is often paid for by their congregations. As a result, they feel they can't complain about their work conditions, she said. 
 
 "This all creates in them a strong interior rebellion," Sister Marie reported. "These sisters feel indebted, tied down, and so they keep quiet." 
 
 Scaraffia said she wanted to give these sisters a voice, even though she counts herself among the church's exploited. 
 
 Neither Scaraffia nor the eight-member editorial staff of Women Church World is paid. The magazine, funded by a grant from the Italian postal service Poste Italiane, pays contributors for their articles, but it is published each month thanks to the free labor of its editorial staff.
– In a move that both the AP and Reuters call "remarkable," an official Vatican magazine run by women is directly criticizing the Catholic Church for its treatment of nuns in its March issue. "Until now, no one has had the courage to denounce these things," says Lucetta Scaraffia, editor of Women's Church World. "We try to give a voice to those who don't have the courage to say these words publicly." In an article written by French journalist Marie-Lucile Kubacki called "The (Nearly) Free Work of Sisters," nuns going by pseudonyms say their lives of service more often resemble indentured servitude, the New York Times reports. They describe days of cooking and cleaning—waking before, and going to bed after, the cardinals, bishops, and priests they serve—for pay that is "random and often modest," when they're paid at all. The nuns say that beyond the money, the problem is their work isn't valued. One nun says they "are seen as volunteers to have available at one's calling," and that leads to abuse. Another says they cook for and wait on the clergy but "are rarely invited to sit at the tables they serve," and that's what hurts her the most. One nun talks about sisters with PhDs in theology and other subjects who are nonetheless assigned to domestic work. One sister says the problem is that the church still operates on the idea "that the priest is everything while sisters are nothing." The AP states that Women's Church World "is increasingly becoming the imprint of the Catholic Church's #MeToo movement." The March issue, centered on "Women and Work," also looks at the gender pay gap, lack of women in leadership roles, and more.