Thirty-four Chilean bishops announced their resignation Friday over a child sex abuse scandal within the Church in Chile that has come to haunt the re
Thirty-four Chilean bishops announced their resignation Friday over a child sex abuse scandal within the Church in Chile that has come to haunt the reign of Pope Francis.
“We, all the bishops present in Rome, have tendered our resignation to the Holy Father so that he may decide freely for each of us. We want to ask forgiveness for the pain caused to the victims, to the Pope, to God’s people and to our country for the serious errors and omissions we have committed,” the bishops said in a statement after three days of intense meetings with Francis at the Vatican.
The striking announcement came after the pontiff summoned the bishops over the scandal. Several members of the Chilean church hierarchy are accused by victims of ignoring and covering up child abuse by Chilean paedophile priest Fernando Karadima during the 1980s and 1990s. On Thursday evening, Francis promised changes to the Chilean church to restore justice in a short declaration to the bishops, made public.
But in a confidential 10-page document leaked Friday by Chilean TV channel T13, the Argentine pope goes much further in his indictment of the Chilean Church. The lette handed to the bishops at the start of their meetings with Francis evokes “crimes and painful and shameful sexual abuse of minors, abuses of power and conscience by ministers of the Church”.
The damning letter also outlines findings of an investigation, ordered by Pope Francis, into the abuse allegations. It says the probe found senior Church officials had destroyed proof in cases of sex abuse and that certain members of the clergy who had displayed immoral behaviour had been transferred to other dioceses after attempts to minimise the gravity of their actions.
Grave accusations were superficially qualified as improbable, the letter says, denouncing bishops for their terrible negligence in protecting children.
Pope Francis bids to repair some of the damage done during his visit to Chile in January, when his defence of controversial Chilean bishop Juan Barros accused of covering up Karadima’s abuses, caused a public outcry. The pontiff at the time said he was convinced that Barros was innocent and demanded “proof” before he would speak out against him.
Francis later apologised to the victims, three of whom he recently received at the Vatican, and admitted he had made “grave mistakes” after reading the 2,300-page report on the abuse in Chile. The mass resignation of an entire delegation of bishops is almost unheard of, having last happened two centuries ago. Bishops have, however, previously been summoned to the Vatican over abuse scandals.
Speaking at the Vatican Friday morning, the Chilean bishops said: “We thank the victims for their perseverance and courage, despite the enormous personal, spiritual, social and family difficulties they had to face, to which were often added the incomprehension and attacks of the Church community.”
