Ezzati's resignation came after he was placed under criminal investigation in the country's spiralling church sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Spanish-born Capuchin friar and current bishop of Copiapo, Chile, Monsignor Celestino Aos Braco will replace Ezzati in the interim.

Ezzati, 77, is one of the 33 Chilean bishops who all offered their resignation to Francis last May amid accusations of cover-ups of sexual abuse by priests.

To date, Francis has accepted the resignations of eight bishops.

Ezzati is perceived as responsible for years of silence regarding 251 alleged crimes.

He denies that he had led a cover-up.

"I can say, with my head held high, that all the complaints that have reached the complaints office that I created in 2011 have been investigated, or are being investigated", he says.

"It's not enough to say that I have covered up (abuse), you have to prove it."

Ezzati had been linked to at least three cases of cover-ups.

One involved alleged abuse committed by former archdiocese chancellor Oscar Munoz who was in charge of the church's sexual abuse investigation files, and is currently under criminal investigation and under house arrest.

The Chilean abuse cases stretch back to the 1940s with the most recent being that of a homeless man who claims to have been drugged and raped by a priest in a dormitory inside the Cathedral of Santiago in 2015.

The accuser told the police he returned once to the Cathedral, where Ezzati hears confession from time to time, to tell him his story. He said he received a hug from the archbishop and was given the equivalent of $45 in Chilean pesos by another priest.

When asked about the homeless man, Ezzati told a local television station early this month: "I don't know him."

Victims rights activists say Francis's acceptance of Ezzati's resignation is a positive step.

"Cardinal Ezzati represents everything that we have fought against for years, especially the culture of abuse and cover-up," said Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murrillo in a statement.

The three are abuse survivors who have helped lead a campaign pressuring the Vatican to take action.

Source

• South China Morning PostImage:
• LA Times
• Daily Sabah

Survivors believe they have won a major victory in their quest for justice as the original lawsuit they brought before the court was dismissed five years ago.

However, new evidence obtained from raids conducted on the archdiocesan chancery proved that Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, the retired archbishop of Santiago, closed an investigation into Karadima.

The court was said to have awarded 450 million pesos ($661,000) in compensation for damages to Karadima's victims.

In a press statement, abuse survivors Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo said that although the path to the verdict was long and full of difficulties, "it was worth it.

"The strategies of the Chilean church, especially Cardinals (Riccardo) Ezzati and Errazuriz, in covering up abuses, protecting abusers and silencing victims has received a strong response from Chilean courts."

The survivors say both the Chilean courts and the Vatican are "on the same line to end the culture of abuse and cover-up of which the cardinals are faithful representatives."

The court's ruling centered on an email sent in 2009 by Cardinal Errazuriz to Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, the former apostolic nuncio to Chile.

In this, Errazuriz says he presented the accusations of abuse to the archdiocesan promotor of justice, the church's canonical prosecutor, because "it usually calms the aggressiveness of the accusers.

"Out of respect for Father Karadima, I did not ask the prosecutor to interrogate him; I only asked (Auxiliary) Bishop Andres Arteaga for his opinion. He thought that everything was absolutely implausible. Considering the facts, I closed the investigation," Errazuriz wrote.

Source

• The Tablet
• The Catholic Spirit
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Francis summoned them to the Vatican last month.

He wants to discuss short, medium and long-term reforms to the church.

Francis has admitted he made "grave errors in judgment" about Bishop Juan Barros's role in covering up sexual abuse perpetrated by Fr Fernando Karadima.

He blames a "lack of truthful and balanced information" for his errors.

The executive committee of the Chilean bishops conference says the bishops came to Rome in "humility and hope."

Their meeting with Francis includes examining the clerical sex abuse cover-up.

The bishops have praised Francis's recent meetings with three of Karadima's survivors, saying his example "showed us the path that the Chilean church is called to follow."

The survivors, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, stayed with Francis as his guests early this month so he could listen to their testimony.

He personally apologised to them for having discredited them in January.

At that time he said their accusations against Barros's role in covering up sexual abuse were "calumny."

He had also demanded they provide proof of Barros's wrongdoing.

However, after receiving a 2,300-page report compiled by top Vatican investigators who traveled to Chile and interviewed victims, priests and lay Catholics, Francis realised he had been misled.

Source

• Washington Post
• Vatican News
• Image: Prensa Latina