The Catholic Church has launched an investigation after two nuns returned to Italy pregnant after a missionary trip to Africa.
Both women, who belonged to different orders in Sicily, were on a visit to their home countries.
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One of the women, aged 34, learned that she was expecting when she went to the hospital with stomach pain, according to Italian media reports.
She was transferred to a different order in Palermo and may leave monastic life to raise the child.
The other woman, who is a mother superior, left for her home country of Madagascar after she was determined to be one-month pregnant.
Her age was not released.
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“An investigation has been launched. They both breached strict rules of chastity but the welfare of their children is uppermost,” a church source told The Sun.
Catholic priests and nuns take a vow of chastity, which is a promise never to have sex.
Among the religious, chastity is placed opposite the deadly sin of lust and is classified as one of seven virtues.
Pope Francis admitted earlier this year that some nuns had been sexually abused by clerics.
