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
Chile’s Catholic Church has asked for a drastic solution that could include resignations. The call came a day after Pope Francis acknowledged “grave mistakes” in handling a sexual abuse crisis and summoned Church leaders to Rome. At a meeting of Church leadership on Chile’s central coast, Santiago Silva, the president of the Episcopal Conference, said Read more
Just how well informed is Pope Francis about the goings-on in his 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church? That question is making the rounds after the pope seemed completely unaware of the details of a Chilean sex abuse scandal, a failing that soured his recent trip there and forced him to do an about-face. It also came 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
The Bolivian President Evo Morales asked for Pope Francis to help with nine Bolivians who have been imprisoned in Chile. Morales has asked for a papal envoy to help calm “rising tensions and a miscarriage of justice”. “I beg you to intervene in the best possible way to quickly resolve this case,” he wrote to Read more
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said the work of the Church is not to reflect the opinions of its members. “The Church’s job is to reflect the point of view of her head and founder: Jesus Christ,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller said in Chile earlier this month. The cardinal Read more
A Jesuit academic has been barred from teaching theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Late last month, the university’s chancellor Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello removed Professor Jorge Costadoat, SJ, from the role. In a letter to the university’s council, Cardinal Ezzati stated Fr Costadoat’s academic path “included unwise affirmations that blurred the magisterial Read more
In a rare move, the Vatican has publicly defended the recent appointment of a controversial bishop accused of covering up child abuse in Chile. The Vatican press office stated: “Prior to the recent appointment of His Excellency Msgr Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid as bishop of Osorno, Chile, the Congregation for Bishops carefully examined Read more
The installation Mass of a Chilean bishop accused of complicity in paedophilia cases descended into chaos as protesters tried to climb onto the altar. An estimated 4000 protesters tried to block Bishop Juan Barros Madrid from entering the cathedral in Osorno on March 21. Inside the cathedral, there were clashes between the bishop’s opponents, carrying Read more