VATICAN CITY: A senior Vatican official has resigned after a former nun accused him of soliciting sex from her a decade ago while hearing her confession, in another potentially embarrassing case of abuse for the Holy See.

The Vatican said on Tuesday that Father Hermann Geissler, an Austrian section head in the Vatican doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), had submitted his resignation but denied the accusation against him. The cardinal heading the CDF accepted his resignation, it said.

The case comes at a time when more nuns, encouraged by the MeToo movement, have been coming forward to describe abuse at the hands of priests and bishops. Last year, the International Union of Superiors General, which represents more than 500,000 Catholic nuns, urged their members to report abuse.

“Fr. Geissler decided to take this step to limit the damage already done to the Congregation and to his Community (religious order),” the Vatican said in a statement. “He affirms that the accusation made against him is untrue.” The Vatican statement said a Church investigation of the case was underway but did not comment on the accusations made against Geissler. Geissler could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Doris Wagner, a German who entered a convent when she was 19, made her accusation at a November conference in Rome on giving a greater voice to women survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2019