The Catholic Church is investigating two nuns who came back from missionaries in Africa pregnant.

The two nuns, who are both African, were on separate missions from their respective orders in Sicily, reports the Independent.

“There is consternation at this news. It appears that both women were back in their home nations and obviously had some form of sexual encounter," a source told Italian news outlet ANSA.

One of the women, who is based at a covenant in Militello Rosmarino, discovered she was pregnant after going to the hospital for stomach pains. She now may leave the church to raise her child.

Salvatore Riotta, mayor of Militello Rosmarino, says he knew the nun and regrets the way the news was leaked.

"There is regret for what happened. Our community of 1,200 inhabitants is baffled by the way some have treated the news, not as secretly as it should have been.”

He also said she took her vow of chastity less than a year ago.

The other woman, a mother superior who was caring for fallen women and their children at her covenant is Ispica, left to her home country of Madagascar when she discovered her pregnancy.

An investigation into their pregnancies has now been ordered.

“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.

They are also launching an investigation into how the news was leaked, according to Sicily’s health councilor, Ruggero Razza, reports the National Post. 

“I wish to express my solidarity first of all to them and to their respective orders. I find it unfair that news that should have remained in the privacy of health facilities has become public knowledge,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Nuns have become pregnant in the past, but most of the pregnancies have been a result of nonconsensual sex. Earlier this year in February, women’s magazine L'Osservatore Romano reported multiple cases of nuns experiencing sexual abuse by clergymen, according to Business Insider.

Pope Francis confirmed the alleged reports were, in fact, true.

“It is true. There are priests and bishops that have done that,” he said.