Vatican City, May 9 (IANS/AKI) Pope Francis has praised the "motherly" role played in the society by nuns, and said they should not feel they are spinsters.
"What would the Church be without you? It would lack motherliness, affection and tenderness," the pontiff told a group of nuns during a private audience at the Vatican.
"You should feel that you are mothers, not spinsters," Francis said.
He urged nuns to help local communities though their vows of obedience to God, poverty and chastity.
Obedience meant "listening to God's will... also via human mediation", Francis said.
Poverty "teaches the meaning of solidarity, sharing and charity, while chastity is fruitful and engenders spirituality among the sons and daughters of the Church", he said.
Francis said power came from serving others.
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"We must never forget that true power, at whatever level, is service, which has its shining pinnacle on the Cross," he added.
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