All of Chile’s 34 Roman Catholic bishops have offered Pope Francis their resignations in the wake of a child sex scandal and cover-up. They asked forgiveness from victims and the Church for their “grave errors and omissions”.
The case evolves around Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of using his position in the Catholic Church to try to block an investigation into his mentor, Catholic priest Fernando Karadima. The latter was an influential priest and was found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing young boys in the 1970s and 80s. He was sentenced to a lifetime of “penance and prayer”. He never faced criminal prosecution in Chile as too much time had passed, but the judge who heard victims’ testimony in a year-long investigation described them as “truthful and reliable”.
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Barros three years ago despite the cover-up allegations. He is not accused of carrying out abuse himself.
The Pope was widely criticised in January when he defended Bishop Barros, arguing “The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will speak. There is not a single piece of proof against him. Everything is slander. Is this clear?”
Days later, the Pope apologised for hurting the victims of clerical sex abuse through his comments, saying the knowledge “pains me very much”. At the end of January, he sent the Vatican’s top expert on sexual abuse, Malta’s Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna to Chile to investigate accusations, citing new information.
The bishops offered their resignation by letter after three days of crisis talks at the Vatican, during which the Pope handed them a 10-page document accusing Chile’s Church hierarchy of negligence in sex abuse cases.
Some of the Vatican investigator’s findings were included in the report, according to Chile’s T13 television, which acquired a leaked copy.
In it, the Pope said he felt ashamed that people had been pressured not to fully investigate abuse allegations.
“We are all involved, myself in first place, and no one can be exempted by looking to shift the problem onto the backs of others,” the Pope reportedly wrote.
