The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis has accepted resignations from Bishop Alejandro Goic Karmelic of Rancagua and Bishop Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca of Talca. The Chilean bishops failed to protect children from paedophile priests. Goic has served as head of the Chilean church’s child protection commission. The extent of clerical paedophilia in Chile Read more
Pope Francis has accepted Bishop Juan Barros’s resignation. Anti-abuse activists called the move the Vatican’s first concrete step in Chile to purge a corrupt church hierarchy implicated in decades of sexual mistreatment and ignoring victims. Barros of Osorno, Chile, has been at the centre of a sex abuse scandal for several years, having been accused Read more
Three Chilean clerical sexual abuse survivors have met with Pope Francis. Francis invited the survivors, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Andres Murillo, to stay in the Santa Marta residence where he lives. In a series of meetings that began in the Vatican on Friday, continued over the weekend and finished on Monday, Francis and Read more
Chilean Bishop Juan Barros should resign because he covered up clerical sex abuse. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati says Barros, who allegedly covered up abuse of minors, should ‘without a doubt’ resign. He also says he would not judge whether Barros actually had covered up abuse by Fr Fernando Karadima. “I’m not a judge” who can say Read more
A Chilean sex-abuse victim will be interviewed personally by the Vatican’s sex-crimes expert, Archbishop Charles Scicluna. Scicluna will travel to New York next week to interview the victim, Juan Carlos Cruz. The victim is at the centre of a scandal involving Pope Francis. Cruz says a letter he wrote in 2015 asking Pope Francis to Read more