Virgins against Vatican: “

Christian women who have vowed to maintain their virginity as long as they are alive as Christ's <x0 minusus” have expressed their shock to a Vatican document saying that virginity is not a condition for their sanctification, reports Guardian.

New Vatican instructions for sacred virginity, Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago, published earlier this month after the demand by bishops that have reported on the increasing number of women performing that obligation.

There are 5 thousand virgins sanctified in at least 42 countries of the world, with the largest number in France, Italy and Argentina.

The sanctified virgins are unmarried women who offer their physical virginity as a gift to Christ, and who devote time to repentance, to work in forgiveness and prayer. Unlike monks, they do not live in closed communities, nor do they wear special clothes. Most of them have different jobs, and they provide for their needs through tasks they perform as other people do.

Some of these instructions say about the step of all that true virginity is not essential for a woman to be considered a holy virgin. /Periscopi